Interview: How Paul International's Webmaster Team Is Preparing for Nationals

The TSA Webmaster event is one of the most technically demanding on the nationals roster — teams must design, build, and present a fully functional website that judges evaluate on everything from visual design to accessibility to the quality of the live presentation. With nationals weeks away, I sat down with the Paul International team to find out how they are approaching preparation.

Where Did You Start?

"We spent the first few weeks just doing research," the team explained. "Looking at what judges say they want to see, looking at past winners, talking to people who have competed before. The biggest mistake teams make is jumping straight into code before they know what the site is actually supposed to do."

That research phase shaped their entire approach. Before writing a single line of HTML, the team built out a clear information architecture — deciding how the site would be organized, what content would live on each page, and how a first-time visitor would naturally navigate through it. "If the structure is wrong, nothing else you do will save it," one team member said.

Design Decisions

The team built their visual system around a defined color palette and typography set before touching layout. "Judges can tell immediately when a site doesn't have a design system — it looks like random decisions got made page by page," they said. "We wanted every page to feel like it came from the same source."

They also prioritized accessibility from the start rather than treating it as an afterthought. That meant checking color contrast ratios, making sure interactive elements were keyboard-navigable, and adding meaningful alt text to every image. "A lot of teams treat accessibility like a checkbox at the end. We built it in from the wireframes."

"If the structure is wrong, nothing else you do will save it."

The Presentation Challenge

Building a great site is only half the battle — in Webmaster, the team also has to present their work to a panel of judges and answer questions about every design and technical decision. "You have to be able to explain why you did everything," the team said. "Not just what it looks like, but why the navigation works the way it does, why you picked a certain layout, why you structured the content the way you did."

To prepare for the presentation, the team has been running mock judging sessions — with team members taking turns as judge and asking the hardest questions they can think of. "It's uncomfortable, but it works. The questions judges ask are never the ones you expect."

What Would You Tell a Team Just Starting Out?

"Read the rubric first. Read it multiple times. The rubric tells you exactly what the judges are scoring — and most teams don't read it carefully enough. Everything you build should be able to be traced back to something on that rubric."

The team will bring their completed portfolio to Washington, D.C. in June when Paul International competes at the TSA National Conference. Follow their results — and all nationals coverage — at PI Tech Network's Nationals Live hub.

About the Webmaster Event