Comments on: Results of The Web Design Survey, 2010

By: Darren Roberts

Darren Roberts — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 05:22:48 +0000

It’s a tricky one.

I’d definitely say I’m more likely to fill in a survey on a cold winter evening rather than a warm summer evening, that’s for sure.

Also – what are the top 3 benefits of this survey to industry professionals ?

If you treat the Survey itself as a Sales issue, identify the USP(‘s) and make participants aware, then maybe there will be more takers next year.

Many Thanks,
Darren.

By: Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:07:48 +0000

It’s just a thought, but I was kind of astounded by the statistics on Cederholm’s “mobile first” link on his site where it says that mobile usage has gone up 5000 percent in the past three years? It’s my feeling that probably a new generation of developers has arisen who don’t really follow the old train of design sites, yourself, zeldman, davis, et al. (My favorites btw) Perhaps if you tried popularizing it on more android or ios centered blogs/sites you might reach these people? I might be wrong.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:54:52 +0000

The data is great and should be enough (to justify the effort vs reward) , but unfortunately it may not be perceived that way for survey participants. “Slicing” up the survey throughout the year might help – but could fragment the results. The content is a little boring – maybe introduce some questions that provide more value – things that reveal best practices or technique trends. Poll the participants and ask what they want to know, etc.

By: TDM

TDM — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:41:49 +0000

It’s the problem of every survey : it takes too much time. And don’t do it in summer, we get even more lazy at this time :)

By: Jono

Jono — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:41:47 +0000

Ways to get more folks to take the survey:
1. Get results out MUCH faster.
2. Include more specific geographic data choices.
3. Hit more communication channels to get a fresh perspective. Try new campaigns to promote the survey. Try a QR code campaign when the survey is out… I took it [_].
4. Who doesn’t like prizes – A Book Apart is a treasure trove
5. Revisit the questions; are they specific enough?
6. I like the poll idea above – ask folks what they want to know about the industry.

By: wafsd

wafsd — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:53:56 +0000

I used to fill it out, but declined this year. I work in the enterprise application space. Your survey really isn’t applicable to that work environment. Your survey focus is on small shop web design and freelance work and not really on IT services firms that do web-based application development for internal use. Our technical specs have more to do with data handling and business process than with UI or neat cutting-edge visual effects. We tend to be older, with degrees in something other than web dev or graphic design, we work in pretty strictly structured and managed departments, though many (like myself) have a background in web start-ups, and we usually are integrating web apps with massive, legacy backends.

Just a different sector of web development, that’s all.

By: Patric

Patric — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:45:20 +0000

I think it is a good way to get a good respons if surveys are posted on facebook.my oppinion is the people on facebook love such stuff to kill time.

By: theFreelanceDesigner

theFreelanceDesigner — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:50:43 +0000

Maybe spread parts of it throughout the year. Beats having to fill out a long survey.

By: Matt Wiebe

Matt Wiebe — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:05:35 +0000

Although I filled out the survey, I felt similarly to Jeff L – tired of the survey. The first couple of times I felt like I was helping the industry, this time I felt like I was on a treadmill.

An obvious way to get people a bit more interested in the survey would be to offer a prize. Give away a ticket to an An Event Apart event. Or, get it sponsored by a 3rd party who provides prizes. Prizes will likely skew the demographics younger, something that might be helpful based on the assumption that those are the people not being reached.

By: Raanan Avidor

Raanan Avidor — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:39:53 +0000

Make a survey on the survey! (not kidding).
For me it was the fact that I already filled this survey in the past (multiple times).
I think that in past years the survey was more visible.
i wonder if other yearly surveys suffer from the same effect (webby awards for example)

By: Elaine

Elaine — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:26:58 +0000

A data-driven hunch from just reading the intro: the age of respondents, age of their blogs, and time in the field has been steadily increasing. It’s possible that this reflects actual changes in the field, but it seems just as likely to me that the survey isn’t reaching newer web professionals. Something to look at in your communication efforts, perhaps.

And summer does seem like a bad time of year to catch people.

By: Jeff L

Jeff L — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:38:29 +0000

Personally, I was tired of the survey. The results were very consistent over the past 3 years and I didn’t feel like wasting my time on it again.

One suggestion for future years….put the results out closer to when people take the survey. Getting the results for last year a couple weeks before taking the next survey seems weird.

Personally, I think you could do this maybe once every 5 years to get a high level view of the industry and be fine.