The New Digital Portfolio

THE NEW DIGITAL PORTFOLIO

Everyone recognizes the awesome power of the Internet, its biological universe superseding the mechanical world of old. And surely we acknowledge that we’ve only scraped the surface of its possibilities. Some of us, though, are scraping harder than others—nay, downright digging, mining it for all its worth, discovering riches others of us haven’t dreamed of. Dave Werner is such a miner.

Behold, the portfolio of the future: http://www.okaydave.com, a digital experience that is, in fact, a virtual job interview, showcasing not only the guy’s creative work, but also the ideas and thinking processes behind it, as well as his work ethic, personality, experience, and presentation skills.

Each project has a story behind it, and Werner presents 11 entertaining documentaries—video and notes that bring the stories to life and show his exploration--including some small failures and what he learned from those before landing on his solutions. Everything in the site, from the loading screen to the main interface, is based around the concept of notes, all beginning with an idea.

A child of the eighties, Werner grew up playing video games like mad and particularly loved the original Super Mario Brothers game for Nintendo. You could play the game straight through, which was fun enough, but a richer experience opened up once you discovered you could go down pipes or find secret warp zones. So inspired, in Okaydave, Werner has hidden several projects and movies around the main “imagination wall” interface, inviting the user to explore, discover, and achieve.

Werner wanted to challenge the conventions of the online portfolio,. In just two days, he has succeeded beyond his expectations, noting traffic from all over the globe—New York to Kuala Lumpur. This portfolio stands to render the traditional, flat these-are-my-projects sites obsolete. But the transition is a little strange. Says Werner: “Unlike a resume buried in a job search engine or a one-on-one interview, this site puts me on display for not only potential employers, but also for peers, family, friends, and thousands of random visitors worldwide. I mean, the biggest referral to the site so far came from a Swedish webcomic about video games, who mentioned it in his blog.”