Survey Data Readme 2021

Introduction
Thanks for downloading the 2021 Design Tools Survey Results! Before jumping into the
data, reading this guide may be helpful for drawing accurate conclusions from the data:

Keep in mind that the respondents of this survey do not represent a random
sample. Most of the respondents self-selected into the survey through popular
social media and design news channels. Designers who are aren't as social media-
active were likely missed in this sample.

Typos, misspellings, and letter casing can cause slight irregularities in the data. If
you find numbers to be slightly off, it’s likely that one of us missed the lowercase
alternative of a word or excluded responses that use spaces (ex:
zeroheight/Zeroheight, UXPin/UX Pin, Dovetail/Dove tail).

The comments at the very end of the survey may be most insightful to companies
who create design tools. Respondents often leave their unfiltered thoughts on the
state of the industry. We don't alter these in any way, except to remove any
personal information.

Have ideas about how to improve the survey, or the analysis? Let us know at
team@uxtools.co.

— Taylor & Jordan

Notes on specific categories

We added two new categories this year: Research Participant Recruiting and
Research Repository. The data in these categories may be less refined than other
categories because the terms are new to our audience and we haven't spent as
much time following the tools over the years.

We removed the "Experience Monitoring" category this year due to confusion about
what it is (many answers were for analytics tools) and due to low response rate. If

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 this category is important to you, reach out and let's chat about how to improve the
survey!

Notes on sponsorship
We allowed public sponsors for the Design Tools Survey for the first time ever this year.
Because we value free and open data, we were very careful with this relationship:

Sponsors were not contacted and organized until after the survey began.

Sponsors were not involved in the creation of the survey or the presentation of the
results.

Sponsors were not given early access to survey data.

Sponsors were not prioritized in the survey questions.

In short, the sponsorship agreement is to support UX Tools, and no other benefit was
offered.

Survey outline
*Indicates a required response (note that the survey uses logic and routing, so even if a
question is required the respondent may have taken a path that skipped that question)

The following introductory message was shown before answering survey questions:

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 💡 Please answer the following questions based on your on-the-job experience
(not the tools you wish you could use).

If you are currently unemployed, answer each question for your most recent
team. This helps us create a snapshot of the current state of the industry!

1. Which country do you live in?

2. Which title best describes your role?

3. How many years of experience do you have?

4. How many *total employees* work at your current place of employment (including
you)?

5. How many total *designers* work at your place of employment (including you)?

6. Which platforms do you primarily use when designing?

7. Which types of experiences are you designing?

8. Do you use software for digital whiteboarding?*

9. Which software do you primarily use for digital whiteboarding?*

10. How would you rate _____ for digital whiteboarding?

11. Do you use any other software for digital whiteboarding?*

12. Other than _____, which other software do you use for digital whiteboarding?

13. Do you use software for UI design?*

14. Which software do you primarily use for UI design?*

15. How would you rate _____ for UI design?

16. Do you use any other software for UI design?

17. Other than _____ which other software do you use for UI design?*

18. Do you use software for UI prototyping?*

19. Which software do you primarily use for UI prototyping?*

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 20. How would you rate _____ for UI prototyping?

21. Do you use any other software for UI prototyping?

22. Other than _____, which other software do you use for UI prototyping?*

23. Do you use software for developer handoff?*

24. Which software do you primarily use for developer handoff?*

25. How would you rate _____ for developer handoff?

26. Do you use any other software for developer handoff?*

27. Other than _____, Which other software do you use for developer handoff?

28. Do you use software for managing design systems?*

29. Which software do you primarily use for managing design systems?*

30. How would you rate _____ for managing design systems?

31. Do you use any other software for managing design systems?*

32. Other than _____, which other software do you use for managing design systems?

33. Do you use software for user testing?*

34. Which software do you primarily use for user testing?*

35. How would you rate _____ for user testing?

36. Do you use any other software for user testing?*

37. Other than_____, which other software do you use for user testing?

38. Do you use software for recruiting research participants?*

39. Which software do you primarily use for recruiting research participants?*

40. How would you rate _____ for recruiting research participants?

41. Do you use any other software for recruiting research participants?*

42. Other than _____, which other software do you use for recruiting research
participants?

43. Do you use software as a research repository?*

44. Which software do you primarily use as a research repository?*

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 45. How would you rate _____ as a research repository?

46. Do you use any other software as a research repository?*

47. Other than _____, which other software do you use as a research repository?

48. Do you use software for version control and file management (of your design files)?*

49. Which software do you primarily use for version control and file management?*

50. How would you rate _____ for version control and file management?

51. Do you use any other software for version control and file management?*

52. Other than _____, which other software do you use for version control and file
management?

53. Which tools are you most excited to try in 2022?

54. Any other thoughts you want to share?

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