Just before Christmas, we asked our design community to share what they hoped to learn in 2016.
Our aim: to create a line-up of top-notch programs IRL, and to build an engaged peer-to-peer learning community online. A place where we can leverage our unique backgrounds and expertise to encourage and engage, innovate and inspire, tinker and teach. A place to have safe, constructive conversations about the work we do every day.
As an organization, SND has been mulling over your feedback, and soon we’ll start announcing opportunities that directly respond to what you’ve asked for. Until then, we want to share a snapshot of what we learned:
- 77 percent of respondents identified designer as their primary job function. 28 percent of respondents also manage people.
- 90 percent of respondents described editorial as the nature of their work. 18 percent selected platform, and 17 percent selected product.
- At 56.6 percent, a majority of respondents said they work on both the print and digital sides of their respective organizations. 27.7 percent work exclusively in print, 15.7 percent work exclusively in digital.
- 65 percent of respondents are seeking new graphics/data visualization skills this year. 41 percent are interested in learning front-end development.
- 63 percent of respondents want to boost their design-thinking skills. 59 percent hope to become better editorial designers, and 45 percent hope to learn more about graphics/data visualization.
(Complete results are viewable via Google Spreadsheet.)
If you didn’t get a chance to weigh-in the first time around, it’s not too late to complete the survey. We’ll continuously monitor responses and seek feedback from our community.
SND distributed the survey to over 1,500 people via our e-mail listserv and social media accounts, and received a response rate of just under 10 percent. To incentivize participation, those who completed it by January 4 were entered to win a one-year SND membership. Meg Martin of Minnesota Public Radio was selected to win by random drawing.
For more information about how to get involved with SND, don’t hesitate to e-mail me at kyle@snd.org.