Discuss: The Web Design Survey, 2007

by ALA Staff

91 Good! But could be better

Early on it asks what my employer expects of me, only to later ask what kind of organization I work for. I am an IP so I treated the former question as my own expectations of myself and my clients expectations of me (which left me checking every single box).

I would suggest asking the organization type early on and tailoring a few questions off of the answer. I would be very interested in some answers related to IP’s.

posted at 09:16 pm on May 6, 2007 by Jonathan Devine

92 Good First Survey

It was definitely a good first survey, though I have some comments like some of the others posted.

Definately the biggest issue I see is in whether we are self-employed, someone who incorporated their business and is considered an employee of it, traditional business employees, unpaid interns or volunteers, or any combination of the above. Since I’ve always been a business owner/self-employed (literally, from the point I was legally able to work), I’ll show you what the way I felt like I had to answer some of these was. Who knows, it might give you an idea of how other business owners may have answered.

#4. What is your job title?
I typically try to answer those kinds of questions with what I do most often. So for this, I answered that – but already you are losing data because there is no question before it asking if I am a business owner or not (should be able to choose more than one).

#6. Regardless of how competent you believe yourself to be, in which of these areas does your employer expect you to be proficient?
For this I simply answered what I expected from myself.

18. How many web design jobs have you held.
I wasn’t sure about this question. Again seems geared toward the employer/employee thing, but my instinct was to answer this as how many clients I’d done work for. Obviously that’s not a good reflection of the number because it only goes up to 10 and its far beyond that. I could’ve instead answered ‘1’ since I’ve always worked for myself, but that wouldn’t necessarily be a good reflection either. Perhaps the question could instead ask – how many different websites have you worked on – that could potentially cover both freelancers and employees.

Other comments – not related to the employee/employer thing.

You might want to make #9 (What is your educational background?) a question that includes the word ‘some’. As in ‘some college’ or in some way indicating that the person might actually be in school currently. I sometimes portion out work to interns, so they would fit in that category of ‘some school.’

Question #15. For how many years have you been working as a web professional?
You might want to ask also how many years total someone has worked in the tech industry. You might find some interesting data about people who are web pros now who were previously in other fields. Personally, I started out as a desktop applications developer, then became a database architect, and then to web design. Might show some interesting data.

Just my two cents :)

posted at 11:42 pm on May 6, 2007 by Nicole Hernandez

93 Software Engineer

Like another commenter earlier, I was somewhat surprised to not see “Software Engineer” in the list of titles, so I was forced to choose “Other”. I know that many software engineers do hate working on UI of any sort but there are some of us who like it and do quite a bit of it. :) In my job I do everything from database queries to Java/JSP to HTML/CSS to Javascript to graphic design. But I guess the companies I’ve worked for have always required that their UI person also be able to handle large-scale server-side Java coding – cheaper than getting separate back-end & front-end developers, I guess!

posted at 12:29 am on May 8, 2007 by Jennifer Grucza

94 Article

Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your articles. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… makes you think more. Greetings

posted at 02:39 pm on May 8, 2007 by Tomek Gorski

95 Archive?

Is there an archive of people who have completed this form? It would be interesting to see who has.

posted at 12:38 pm on May 9, 2007 by Craig Robson

96

Is there an archive of people who have completed this form? It would be interesting to see who has.

I’m not sure what you’re asking. Participant names and other personal information (e-mail addresses, answers that mention recognizable organizations or circumstances) are being kept strictly private, but maybe that’s not what you meant.

posted at 06:47 pm on May 9, 2007 by Erin Kissane

97

I’ve not read all the messages, so someone else may have mentioned it … many of the questions weren’t that relevant to people who work in Education – teaching Web design.
I noted earlier that someone else commented on the difficulties of self rating on skill sets – a binary choice between “can” & “can’t” doesn’t give much scope. A few more grades such as “know a little”, “know a reasonable amount” “Considered by my colleagues a guru – but I know that there’s still more I could learn” could be useful.

posted at 08:49 pm on May 15, 2007 by Emma DW

98 Too few social questions

The introduction asked where we live, who we are, yet there are very few questions related to these issues.

Do you own or rent?
What city do you live in (there is a big difference between living in NYC and Burlington, VT)?
What is your monthly housing cost?
How do you get to work?
-public transportation
-car
-bike
What do you think are the most relevant new technologies?
-video
-virtual worlds
-online games
-blogs
-other

More in-depth questions about technology would be great too..

What platform do you use?
-Linux
-Windows
-Mac

What browser do you use for personal web surfing?
-Firefox
-IE
-Safari
-Opera
-etc

What browser do you test web sites in?
-Firefox
-IE
-Safari
-Opera
-etc

What software do you use (design)?
What software do you use (development)?
What software do you use (multimedia)?

What other mediums are you developing/designing for?
-Cell phone
-iPhone
-online games
-console games
-online video
-podcasts

What technology are you looking to add to your arsenal
-video editing
-video production
-3D modelling
-3D animation
-mobile apps
-etc

We could go alot deeper than this survey. I’ve seen surveys with these same questions for years, they are to general. You asked if we had a web site/blog. They are 2 VERY distinctly different things. Most web designers/developers have a portfolio site, sometimes their own, sometimes on a portal like CreativeHotlist. But other than showing off their work, how many of us are talking about what is going on in the world or our industry via blogs? Are they using text blogs or vlogs? How many to podcasts or vodcasts? How many own their own URL? How many own their own SWURL (Synthetic World URL)? What do we use for email (webmail, squirrel mail, office, etc)? What is their primary communication platform with clients (phone, email, face-to-face, web meeting, virtual world, letters, etc.).

Come on, let’s get into the nitty gritty!

posted at 08:18 pm on May 16, 2007 by Michael Durwin

99

Thanks to all who commented on ways we might improve the survey as a tool for discovering where and how folks like us work. Many of these suggestions will find their way into next year’s survey.

To those who wished the survey had asked about platforms, browsers, standards, etc., we will run a second survey later this year that asks precisely these kinds of questions.

Two surveys are needed. The most critical survey, in our estimation, was the one that tried to find out who we are and how we work. That was the survey more than 30,000 of you have just completed. We will publish the results in about a month, and we will conduct the survey again next year.

The second survey concerns skills and attitudes. Look for that survey in four or five months.

A List Apart intends to run both surveys each year, about six months apart. Over the next few years, with your help and support, we will be able to sketch the first true picture of web design as it is practiced around the world. Thanks again.

posted at 02:38 pm on May 20, 2007 by Jeffrey Zeldman

100 Ahh, Narcissism

Congratulations on taking the first step, ALA. It was a trail blazing effort, and I am honored that I had a chance to participate.

Somewhere in this sea of comments I read an excellent observation, that this survey has “touched some nerves…” indeed. I think the complaints, feedback, and tide of comments stem from an enthusiastic, passionate (albeit sometimes juvenile and immature) crowd who wanted themselves represented as accurately as possible, afraid that the chance may never come ‘round again.

Glad to see you’re taking it all in stride, and I hope the next one will be as illuminating as I expect this one will be.

posted at 09:04 pm on May 29, 2007 by Thuy Nguyen