A List Apart Survey 2008
August 14, 2008 at 11:22 am
Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.
Last year 33,000 people took the A List Apart Survey on working conditions of people who make websites. The web is such a new invention, I think it’s really important to start looking at the lives of those who make it happen. Interesting findings last year. What I noted:
- Massive gender imbalance (82.8% male). Why oh why? I believe that the web more than any other industry offers many types of roles that suit different types of brains - whether you’re a designer, a writer, a marketer, a linguist, a mathemetician, a programmer, a planner, a spatial designer, a project manager… there’s something for you. Add to that the fact that this is a young industry where a certain degree of democracy and flexibility exists, I really don’t understand why more women aren’t working in the web. The results of the 2007 survey shows that most people have come to the web having worked somewhere else. If you’re reading this and you’re thinking of making the leap over to the web side, come on over. It’s fun!
- Most respondents who were developers and designers are white, university educated, and located in the United States (48%). This is a pity because their wage data means nothing to me. I wish they broke the wage rates down by country!
- Heart warming stats - 97.1% of respondents are ‘excited by the field’. I wonder if that kind of statistic exists in any other industry? Of that, 35% are very frequently excited by it. This is evidenced by the fact that 72.5% of respondents have a personal blog. We tend to live what we talk.
There’s lots more interesting stuff in last year’s survey. Take a look - it’s easily scannable and digestible.
But the big news is that now is the time they’re calling for people to take part in this years survey. Go to it. Let’s get our voices heard and a bit of a EU (non UK) bias going on.
Thanks to Eric Nieudan for bringing this to my attention via Twitter.
Update: I took the survey and it took me 11 minutes
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