Survey For People Who Make Websites 2008 Results Out
Back in 2007, the staff of A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey and presented 37 questions to 33,000 web professionals, providing “the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide” (ALA 2007 results). The results were compiled into a downloadable PDF file.
In 2008 they did it again, the results of the 2008 Survey For People Who Make Websites are now out for public consumption. The survey had less respondents compared to the one held in 2007 down to 30,055. Data analysis is provided by Alan Brickman and Larry Yu. The results speak can be overwhelming for some. Thankfully the findings are presented in a friendly, easy to read article with clear and beautiful CSS Charts.
ALA has generously shared the raw data with the community, which is available as tabbed text, CSV, and Excel spreadsheet. RAW data is a powerful thing, and I just have a couple of suggestions how it can be used:
- AJAX application that allows visitors to enter their own responses, and generates a graph that shows where the respondent is in relation to others
- Quick summary that shows the highest and lowest result per question
- AJAX application that allows visitors to filter, sort, and sift through the data
- Side-by-side comparison of 2008 and 2007 data
All in all, big props to the ALA team for the tremendous effort spent on this endeavor. It is a great contribution to the web community. Looking forward to the 2009 survey!
