I’m very excited to announce the opening of this year’s Design Tools Survey—you can take it right now, here. The market for software made for product designers, web designers, app designers, interaction designers and more has never been more vibrant and interesting. This short, five-minute set of simple questions helps us all understand the big picture in the day-to-day tool choices that we make. So go let your voice be heard!
Background
Last year I launched the first iteration of this survey in June, and over the course of just a few weeks it garnered over 4,000 responses. Once all the data was in, I worked with my good friends at the Brooklyn-based design studio Hyperakt to crunch the numbers and they produced a beautiful report of the findings—you can still see that overview of 2015’s design tools market here.
This year’s survey is largely the same, though of course I’ve added all of the major new players that have entered the market since last June. I’ve also made an adjustment to two of the questions, consolidating the project management and version control topics into a new one labeled “design workflow.” This seemed like a simpler and more straightforward way to address a category of tools that are hard to classify by specific functionality.
Partners
I want to thank this year’s sponsors, Dropmark and Designer Fund for helping to make this year’s survey possible.
Dropmark is “the smart way to organize all your links, files, and notes into visual collections.” It’s a wonderful product from the team at Oak, the incredibly talented design studio who will be producing this year’s survey results report in the early fall. I can’t wait for that.
Designer Fund invests in startups co-founded by designers, and builds and educates design teams for partner companies. It also connects experienced product and communication designers with new full-time, in-house career opportunities at design-focused companies like Asana, Dropbox, Fitbit, and Medium, as well as earlier-stage startups. Basically they create great opportunities for ambitious designers. If you’re ready to make a move, get in touch.
Take the Survey
The survey is open to everyone and no authentication or login is required (though you may choose to enter your email at the end to get updates on its progress and the results report). Please spare a few minutes to let your voice be heard, and share it with every designer you know. Get started right now here. Thank you!
+