Shipping interactive demos on my own site (no extra deploy)
My portfolio doesn’t just link to little tools anymore! it can run them right on the page.
I write the UI, hit save, and visitors get the real thing—sliders, calculators, whatever. One place for the story and the demo.
Before
I used to treat my site like a brochure: screenshots, links, maybe a GIF. Fine for case studies; boring for anything I actually want people to try.
What changed
Some app pages are live now—not a recording of the thing, the thing.
- You land on the page, scroll to the preview, and you’re already using it.
- Tweak a value, see the result.
- If it remembers your choices in the browser, that’s on purpose—and there’s a simple way to clear that and start fresh.
I still want the experience to feel good on phones and desktops, and I’m not interested in turning my own site into a sketchy free-for-all. How that’s enforced isn’t the point.
The point: the portfolio and the prototype share the same room.
Why I’m into it
For the side projects I’m proud of, that’s the bar now:
Don’t send people away to “go try it somewhere else” unless there’s a good reason.
Do let them stay on the page—and play.