Presentation
For my first job interview out of school I printed out websites I had designed to show the interviewer. They were printed on glossy inkjet paper. Actually, I had several websites I was going to print out, but the printer kept jamming and it was taking forever, so I ended up frustratingly printing only one or two and apologizing.
For some reason I was thinking about that, how bizarre it was that I was printing out websites to demonstrate that I could make websites. It seems in hindsight ridiculous, and I can’t think of where the idea came from.
I have this newer idea, though, that if you’re going to present a website to a client it’s a good idea to set the computer in front of them and get out of the way. Let them navigate. Let them feel their way around. Don’t enlarge the thing on a big screen, and especially don’t print it out. Let them experience it as they would naturally. “Feel” is so important on the web. And there’s only one way to get that. Take hold the mouse.
Somehow I got that job. Most of the work I ended up doing was print.
