2017 Design Salary Survey

2017 Design Salary Survey
Tools, Trends, Titles, What Pays (and What Doesn’t) for Design Professionals
John King & Roger Magoulas

2017 DESIGN SALARY SURVEY
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I
2017 Design Salary Survey
Tools, Trends, Titles, What Pays (and What Doesn’t)
for Design Professionals
John King & Roger Magoulas

2017 DESIGN SALARY SURVEY REVISION HISTORY FOR THE FIRST EDITION
by John King and Roger Magoulas 2017-02-08: First Release
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January 2017: First Edition
Table of Contents
The 2017 O’Reilly Design Salary Survey............................................. iii
Executive Summary................................................................................ 1
Introduction.......................................................................................... 2
Salary Overview..................................................................................... 3
Geography............................................................................................ 6
Age Versus Years of Experience.............................................................. 9
Gender............................................................................................... 12
Industry, Company Size........................................................................ 13
Coding Time, Programming Languages................................................. 16
Tasks................................................................................................... 19
Meetings............................................................................................. 22
Working with Other People.................................................................. 23
Types of Products, Products or Services................................................. 26
Design Process..................................................................................... 28
Tools................................................................................................... 30
Tools: Wireframing and Prototyping...................................................... 33
Tools: Information Organization / Architecture....................................... 38
Conclusion.......................................................................................... 43
Appendix A: Adjusted Median Salary.................................................... 44
V
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THE SURVEY oreilly.com/design/2018-design-salary-survey
Executive Summary
THE 2017 O’REILLY DESIGN SALARY SURVEY explores Some key findings include:
the landscape of modern design professionals, giving details
■■ The West Coast (CA, WA, OR) has the highest salaries—
about their roles and how much they earn. The results are salaries are high even relative to those states’ per
based on data from our online survey that collected 1,085 capita GDP
responses. We pay special attention to variables that correlate ■■ Healthcare, banking, and computers/hardware
with salary, but this report isn’t just about money—we pres- respondents report the highest salaries
ent a range of information, including the popularity of design ■■ Respondents from large companies report higher
tools, tasks, and organizational processes. salaries
In what is now our second salary survey, we find some ■■ Agile is the most popular design process; however,
consistency as to what matters in the those using LeanUX or a hybrid of
field of design: that the better-paying different processes earn the most
■■ Designers reporting no process
design jobs tend to concentrate in tech Designers reporting no earn the least
centers; that experience matters more
than age; that knowing more tools, process earn the least ■■ Higher earners use a wider
selection of tools
working with more people in a wider
variety of roles, and working for larger ■■ For prototyping and
wireframing, salaries are highest
organizations all correlate with higher wages. And, in a sign
among those that use Sketch
that some things in the design world resist change (in some
cases, whether we like it or not), we still see women making We hope that you will find the information in this report useful. If
less than men and that most designers still use pen and paper you can spare 5–10 minutes, please go ahead and take the survey
as their primary design tool. yourself: oreilly.com/design/2018-design-salary-survey.
1
Introduction
FOR THE SECOND YEAR RUNNING, we at O’Reilly Media Throughout the report, we quote median salary statistics for
have conducted a survey for designers, gathering information various groups of people, such as those respondents who
about their compensation and details about their work. This used a certain tool or came from a particular industry. Since
year, 1,085 people from 48 countries took these figures can be misleading if the
the survey. Respondents are mostly UX, variable in question correlates with ge-
product, and graphic designers, but there 1,085 people ography or experience, we also some-
are also a fair number of developers and times quote a median “adjusted” salary.
other professionals involved in product
from 48 countries Technical details are in Appendix A.
design. The survey was conducted online, took the survey.
collecting responses from December 2015
to December 2016.
While typical for online surveys, the methodology we used
In the horizontal bar charts throughout this report, we include
of a self-selecting, uncontrolled respondent pool can lead to
the interquartile range (IQR) to show the middle 50% of
less than ideal results. However, the broad range of respon- respondents’ answers to questions such as salary. One quarter
dents’ geographies, industries, and company sizes helps of the respondents has a salary below the displayed range,
mitigate the issues associated with a small, narrow sample. and one quarter has a salary above the displayed range.
2
Salary Overview
THE MEDIAN SALARY OF THE ENTIRE SAMPLE IS $77K,
with the middle half earning between $50K and $109K. This
“middle half” statistic is called the “interquartile range,” and
we show it in many of the graphs to give a sense of the salary
spread for various groups of respondents. The spread is very
broad, but this isn’t surprising given the diversity of profes-
sional backgrounds among respondents and the fact that they
come from locations with very different overall wage levels.
Most respondents report some gain in salary over the past
three years, and about 10% of the sample saw their salaries
double. Another third has wage growth of 30% to 100%
(also across the last three years). Respondents who have no
wage growth tend to have lower salaries (median of $50K),
but otherwise there’s no clear pattern between salary growth
(as a percentage) and current salary.
TOTAL SALARY
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
$0K
$20K
$40K
$60K
(US DOLLARS)
$80K
$100K
Total Salary
$120K
$140K
$160K
$180K
$200K
> $200K
0% 5% 10% 15% 20%
Share of Respondents
TASKS (MAJOR CHANGE
PERCENTAGE INVOLVEMENT ONLY)
IN SALARY OVER LAST THREE YEARS
10%
+30% TO +40%
10% 7%
+40% TO +50%
+20% TO +30%
15%
+10% TO +20%
7%
11% +50% TO +75%
+0% TO +10%
12% 8%
NO CHANGE
+75% TO +100% (DOUBLE)
5%
NEGATIVE CHANGE 6%
+100% TO +200% (TRIPLE)
4%
NA (SALARY WAS ZERO) 4%
OVER TRIPLE
5
Geography
TWO-THIRDS OF THE SAMPLE IS FROM THE UNITED STATES, Salaries vary sharply across geography; however, in most
and 20% is from Europe. After the US, the most well cases, country and state variations mirror the local economy.
represented countries in the sample are Canada (5%), the Per capita GDP is a good predictor of salary, although some
United Kingdom (4%), Germany (2%), countries in Western Europe, includ-
Russia (2%), and Australia (2%). ing Italy, the Netherlands, Spain,
For US-based respondents, a dis-
In most cases, country and Portugal, have lower than
expected salaries—likely reflecting
proportionate share comes from the and state variations mirror
West Coast: 37% of the sample is how different recovery rates from
from California, Washington, and
the local economy. the 2008 recession and different tax
Oregon (states containing only 16% and social safety net regimes affect
of the US population). New York and wages. In the US, the West Coast
Massachusetts also have disproportionately high response rates. states (CA, OR, WA) have higher salaries relative to their per
The skew in the geographic distribution of respondents likely capita GDP, which, combined with their higher response rates,
reflects that the O’Reilly audience and design-related jobs tend to may indicate a relatively high demand for design jobs on the
concentrate in tech-centric coastal cities. West Coast, helping to push up wages.
6
WORLD REGION
5% 13% 8%
CANADA
WESTERN EASTERN
65% EUROPE EUROPE

4%
UNITED STATES ASIA
1%
AFRICA
3%
LATIN AMERICA
2%
AUSTRALIA/NZ
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

United States
Europe (except UK/I)
UK/Ireland
Region
Canada
Latin America
Asia
Australia/NZ
Africa
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
US REGION
8% 18%
PACIFIC NW NORTHEAST
8%
16%
29% MIDWEST
MID-ATLANTIC
CALIFORNIA
5%
SW/MOUNTAIN 8%
SOUTH
8%
TEXAS
California
Northeast
Midwest
South
Region
Texas
Pacific NW
Mid-Atlantic
SW/Mountain
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
Age Versus Years of Experience
THREE-QUARTERS OF THE SAMPLE IS BETWEEN 26 The lesson of age and years of experience tells us that we should
AND 45, with about an eighth younger and an eighth be careful about confounding variables affecting our interpre-
older. Salary generally increases with age until age 50, tations: being older (without anything else happening) may not
where we see the 7% of the sample increase your salary (at least not after
who are over 50 30), but having more experience will.
report a slightly lower median salary The 7% of the sample While this example is fairly obvious,
than respondents in their 40s. others are not, and in this report, we
Respondents were also asked how
who are over 50 report make an effort to avoid this same
problem in more subtle contexts by
much experience they have, and, as a slightly lower median
expected, salary increases steadily occasionally referring to an additional
with years of experience, although
salary than respondents metric we call “adjusted median.”
only up to a point: respondents with in their 40s. The adjusted median blocks the effects
20–25 years of experience earn more of geography and experience—creating
(median: $118K) than those with a metric that estimates what the me-
more than 25 years of experience ($101K). After we factor dian would be if the respondents all came from a fixed location
in years of experience, age doesn’t make any difference in and all had the same experience—to make comparing factors
salary among respondents aged 31 to 50. Holding expe- more reliable. Appendix A contains additional details on the
rience constant, respondents younger than 30 do make a methodology. To illustrate, we show each five-year age category
little less, but the difference isn’t as much as the age medi- between 31 and 50 with an adjusted median salary of $80K,
ans would suggest. those between 26 and 30 with $73K, and those between 51
and 60 with $68K–$69K.
9
AGE
7%
OVER 50
17%
41 TO 50
36%
31 TO 40
30 or younger
31 to 40
40%
Age
30 OR YOUNGER 41 to 50
Over 50
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150
Range/Median
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE (IN YOUR FIELD)
10%
OVER 20
5%
17 TO 20
12%
13 TO 16
16%
9 TO 12
27% LESS THAN 5

5 TO 8
Years of Experience
5 TO 8
9 TO 12
13 TO 16
17 TO 20
30% OVER 20
LESS THAN 5
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
11
2017 DESIGN SALARY SURVEY GENDER
Gender
48% 51%
FEMALE MALE
THE SAMPLE IS SPLIT FAIRLY EVENLY BY GENDER. The

median salary of women in the sample is $82K, higher than
the median salary of the men, which is $74K. However, the
adjusted median salary of women is about $4K lower than
the adjusted median salary of men. The discrepancy is ac- SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
counted for by the fact that women in the sample are dispro-
Gender
Female
portionately from places with higher wages. In almost every
geographic region (adjusting for experience), men are paid Male
more than women on average, even at the same experience
levels. $20K $40K $60K $80K $100K $120K
Range/Median
Men and women are equally likely to have received a raise in
the last three years, but men are slightly more likely to receive
a bonus: 46% of men in the sample received a bonus, while
only 41% of women received one.
12
Industry, Company Size
Healthcare, banking, and

computers/hardware all have
RESPONDENTS COME FROM median salaries of about (the adjusted median is also high:
A VARIETY OF INDUSTRIES: $96K), although this is based on
software is by far the most com- $89K, compared to an just 2% of the sample.
mon, with about a third of the adjusted median of $74K for Over one-third of the sample come
sample, followed by consulting, from companies with no more
advertising/marketing, and retail/ all other industries. than 100 employees, and another
ecommerce. There are variations quarter come from mid-sized com-
in salary among industry, although panies (in the 100–1,000 employee
many of the differences diminish once we calculate the range). Salary does appear to go up with company size: from a
adjusted median salaries. When adjusted for experience and median of $63K for 2–100 employee companies, to $96K for
geography, healthcare, banking, and computers/hardware companies with over 10,000 employees. Again, these differences
all have median salaries of about $89K, compared to an shrink slightly once we block out experience and geographical
adjusted median of $74K for all other industries. Search/social effects, but the 10,000+ group still shows an adjusted median
networking is even higher, with a median salary of $127K salary of $10K–$15K higher than the other groups.
13
INDUSTRY
3%
COMPUTERS / HARDWARE
5%
BANKING / FINANCE
5% 3%
EDUCATION MANUFACTURING / HEAVY INDUSTRY
5% 2%
MEDIA / ENTERTAINMENT
NONPROFIT / TRADE ASSOCIATION
5%
HEALTHCARE / MEDICAL 2%
SEARCH / SOCIAL NETWORKING
6%
RETAIL / ECOMMERCE 2%
GOVERNMENT
9% 2%
CARRIERS / TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ADVERTISING / MARKETING / PR
13% 6%
OTHER
CONSULTING
33%
SOFTWARE
INDUSTRY
Software
Consulting
Advertising / Marketing / PR
Retail / Ecommerce
Healthcare / Medical
Media / Entertainment
Education
Industry
Banking / Finance
Computers / Hardware
Manufacturing / Heavy Industry
Nonprofit / Trade Association
Search / Social Networking
Government
Carriers / Telecommunications
Other
0K 50K 100K 150K 200K
Range/Median
Coding Time, Programming Languages
ONLY 43% OF THE SAMPLE reports that programming Among those that do code, most report spending at most 8
plays some role in their work. The other 57%, in fact, earn hours/week on the task, while only 9% of the sample report
more, with a median salary of $83K (coders earn a median that they code more than 20 hours/week. The group with
of $69K). However, this difference all but disappears when the highest adjusted median salary is the one that spends
we adjust the salaries, since the 1–3 hours/week, although the salary
distribution of respondents who differences are fairly minor.
code vary greatly over geogra- 58%–59% of respondents As for language choice, by far the
phy. For example, 58%–59% of
respondents from Europe and Asia
from Europe and Asia say most popular language is JavaScript
(31% of the sample), with Python
say that they spend at least some that they spend at least and Java coming next, with 8% and
time coding, while only 30% of 7% shares of the sample, respectively.
respondents from California code. some time coding, while
Swift users tend to have high salaries:
Combined with a review of the only 30% of respondents their median of $95K is far above the
2016 Design Salary Survey, we sample-wide median, and this margin
don’t see code having more than a from California code. is decreased but still significant after
noisy impact on salary. geographical adjustment.
16
TIME SPENT CODING (HOURS PER WEEK) TIME SPENT IN MEETINGS (HOURS PER WEEK)
INDUSTRY
TASKS (MAJOR INVOLVEMENT ONLY)
2%
57% NONE
NONE 25%
17% 1 TO 3 HOURS / WEEK
1 TO 3 HOURS / WEEK
8% 45%
4 TO 8 HOURS / WEEK 4 TO 8 HOURS / WEEK
8%
9 TO 20 HOURS / WEEK
25%
> 20 HOURS / WEEK
4%
> 20 HOURS / WEEK
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS) SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
None None
1 to 3 hours / week
Time Spent
1 to 3 hours / week
Time Spent
4 to 8 hours / week 4 to 8 hours / week
9 to 20 hours / week
> 20 hours / week
> 20 hours / week
20K 40K 60K 80K 100K 120K
0K 50K 100K 150K 200K
Range/Median
Range/Median
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
3%
PHP
3%
SWIFT
4%
RUBY JavaScript
7% Python
BASH
Java
Language
Bash
7% Ruby
JAVA
Swift
8% PHP
PYTHON
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
31%
JAVASCRIPT
Tasks
A SET OF QUESTIONS ON THE SURVEY asks respondents A second set of tasks also correlates with one another: pitch-
whether they engage in certain tasks, either with “major” or ing, presenting, requirements gathering, leading design critics,
“minor” involvement. Some tasks are nearly universal, such as managing products, and managing people. For each of these
brainstorming (74% major involvement, 21% minor involve- tasks except product management, respondents who have
ment) and user interface design (64% major, 25% minor), and major involvement earn more than those that do not. The
others are relevant to a much differences in adjusted median
smaller subset of the sample, such salaries are similarly significant,
as managing people (25% major, Respondents who have around $10K for each.
35% minor) and data analytics
(13% major, 46% minor).
major involvement in While product management
does correlate with these
We found three highly correlated product management but other tasks (in particular, with
tasks (wireframing, prototyping, managing people), it doesn’t
and sketching), meaning that re- do not have major involvement correspond to a boost in salary.
spondents who do one are more While the median salary of
likely to do another. These are
in managing people have those who manage products
among the most common tasks, is higher than those that do
below-average salaries.
each with 85%–-87% of the not ($81K versus $76K), this
sample (major or minor involve- difference disappears when we
ment), while 93% are involved adjust the salaries for experience
in at least one of the three. The 40% of the sample that and geography. Furthermore, respondents who have major
has major involvement in all three tend to earn above- involvement in product management but do not have
average wages (median: $87K). After adjusting the medians major involvement in managing people, have below-average
for experience and geography, this discrepancy holds. salaries ($9K difference in adjusted median salary).
19
40%
REQUIREMENTS GATHERING
43% 43%
INFORMATION
LEADING DESIGN
38%
49% ARCHITECTURE
CRITIQUES
STORYTELLING
PRESENTING
(TO CLIENTS OR MANAGEMENT)
56% 35%
USER
PROTOTYPING
RESEARCH
56% 13%
SKETCHING DATA 32%
ANALYTICS PITCHING
(TO CLIENTS OR
61% 25%
MANAGEMENT)
WIREFRAMING MANAGING
PEOPLE 31%
USABILITY TESTING
64% 30%
USER INTERFACE DESIGN
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
74%
BRAINSTORMING
20
Brainstorming
User interface design
Wireframing
Sketching
Prototyping
Presenting (to clients or management)
Information architecture
Task
Leading design critiques
Requirements gathering
Storytelling
User research
Pitching (to clients or management)
Usability testing
Project management
Managing people
Data analytics
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
21
TIME 2017
SPENTDESIGN SALARY
CODING SURVEY
(HOURS PER WEEK) TIME SPENT IN MEETINGS (HOURS PER WEEK)
INDUSTRY
Meetings
2%
57% NONE
NONE 25%
1 TO 3 HOURS / WEEK
8%
MEETINGS ARE A PART OF MOST DESIGN PROFESSIONALS’ 45%
4 TO 8 HOURS / WEEK 4 TO 8 HOURS / WEEK
WORK WEEK: 94% of the sample spends between 1 and
8%
20 hours per week in meetings. As we’ve seen in past salary
9 TO 20
surveys, those who attend more HOURS earn
meetings / WEEK
more. An 25%
9%
effect we see even after adjusting for experience. 9 TO 20 HOURS / WEEK
> 20 HOURS / WEEK
Respondents from the US tend to spend more time in meet-
ings than those outside of the US. Among US-based respon-
4%
> 20 HOURS / WEEK
dents, 33% spend at least 9 hours per week in meetings,
while this figure is only 20% for non-US respondents.
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS) SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
As we would expect, meeting times vary dramatically with job
None
title. VPs and directors spend the most time in meetings, fol- None
1 tolowed
3 hoursby/ project/product
week managers. UX designers and prod-
Time Spent
1 to 3 hours / week
Time Spent
uct designers each spend about seven hours in meetings per
4 to 8 hours / week 4 to 8 hours / week
week, on average, while software developers/engineers and
9 to 20 hoursdesigners
graphic / week only spend about four hours on average.1
> 20 hours / week
> 20 hours / week
20K 40K 60K 80K 100K 120K
1 Note that these are rough average figures, since the original survey data 0K 50K 100K 150K 200K
was collected in binned ranges. Range/Median
Range/Median
22
Working with Other People
MOST RESPONDENTS REPORT THAT THEY WORK WITH We also asked how many designers and programmers work
PEOPLE IN A VARIETY OF ROLES. Only 3% of the sample at the respondents’ organizations. Most respondents work
say they only work with (other) designers, and this group has at companies with at least 5 designers and 20 programmers.
a median adjusted salary of $56K, far below the sample-wide Generally, the more programmers and designers at a com-
$77K. With five answer choices to pick pany, the greater the salary, although
from (designers, programmers, product part of this gradient may be attributable
managers, salespeople, and industrial de- The minority of to company size, since there are higher
signers), most respondents chose three respondents (7%) salaries at larger companies, and larger
or four. companies tend to have more designers
The minority of respondents (7%) who

who work with and employees.
work with industrial designers earn industrial designers However, even among subsets of respon-
high salaries (median: $101K; adjusted dents partitioned by company size, this
median: $82K), which is likely related
earn high salaries pattern remains, at least for designers.
to the high wages in computers/hard- For example, among respondents from
ware. Aside from this, no single answer companies with more than 1,000 and
stands out as having an effect on salary. However, it does fewer than 10,000 employees, the adjusted median salaries
appear that interacting with a wider variety of roles correlates of respondents who work with no more than 10 designers
positively with higher incomes: the adjusted median salaries is $68K, while that of respondents who work with over 10
of respondents who interact with one, two, three, and four of designers was $81K. Similar patterns are present with other
the listed roles are $60K, $68K, $77K, and $83K, respectively. company sizes.
23
NUMBER OF DESIGNERS AT YOUR COMPANY
INDUSTRY
4%
NONE None
Number of Designers
39% 1 to 4
1 TO 4
5 to 10
21% 11 to 50
5 TO 10
19% More than 50

11 TO 50 0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
17% Range/Median
MORE THAN 50
NUMBER OF PROGRAMMERS/ENGINEERS AT YOUR COMPANY

7% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

NONE
Programmers/Engineers
None
14%
1 TO 4 1 to 4
Number of
15% 5 to 10
5 TO 10
24% 11 to 50
11 TO 50
More than 50
0K 20K 40K 60K 80K 100K 120K

41% Range/Median
MORE THAN 50
24
INDUSTRY
TASKSOF
ROLES (MAJOR INVOLVEMENT ONLY)
PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH
3%
(NONE OF THE ABOVE)
7%
INDUSTRIAL
DESIGNERS
38%
SALES PEOPLE
77%
PRODUCT MANAGERS
Programmers
79% Designers
DESIGNERS Product managers
Roles
Sales people
Industrial designers
(None of the above)
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
85% Range/Median
PROGRAMMERS
Types of Products,
Products or Services
MOST OF THE SAMPLE WORKS ON BOTH PRODUCTS
AND SERVICES, with 31% working on products only and
14% on services only. Respondents who work in products
only have the highest salary (median: $87K; adjusted: $77K),
and those who work in services only have the lowest (median:
$61K; adjusted: $70K).
As for types of products, most respondents work on web
products (83%) and mobile products (65%). Few respondents
(3%) work only on mobile products. Many more work on
web products only (22%), but these respondents tend to earn
less (median: $70K; adjusted: $72K) than those who work on
web products and a different type of product (median: $84K;
adjusted: $78K).
Two other product categories (wearables and other connected
devices) are less common, with 12% and 18% of the sample,
respectively. However, respondents who work on one or both
of these product types earn higher salaries than those that
don’t, with a median salary of $90K (adjusted: $82K).
26
TYPES OF PRODUCTS
INDUSTRY

WEB PRODUCTS
Web products
65%
Types of Products
Mobile products
MOBILE PRODUCTS
Other connected devices
18% Wearables
OTHER CONNECTED
DEVICES (None of the above)
12%
WEARABLES
0K 20K 40K 60K 80K 100K 120K
Range/Median
11%
(NONE OF THE ABOVE)
PRODUCTS OR SERVICES

BOTH
Both
31%
Product/
Service
Products
PRODUCTS
Services
14% 20K 40K 60K 80K 100K 120K
SERVICES
Range/Median
27
Design Process
THE TOP DESIGN PROCESS IS AGILE, with 45% of the
sample. Design sprints are a distant second (17%), followed by
waterfall (10%) and lean UX (8%). Practitioners of Agile tend
to earn above-average salaries (median: $81K; adjusted: $79K),
but not as much as those that practice lean UX (median: $89K;
adjusted: $83K) or the 7% of the sample who use a hybrid or
combination of design processes (median: $98K; adjusted: $83K).
A small subset (8%) report no design process, and these
respondents tend to earn rather low salaries: a median of
$48K, rising slightly to $53K after adjusting for geography
and experience. These respondents are more likely to come
from smaller companies with fewer designers, but this ten-
dency isn’t absolute: about 5% of respondents from large
companies (>1,000 employees) with over 50 designers say
that they have no design process.
28
DESIGN PROCESS
4%
7% OTHER
8% COMBINATION /
HYBRID
LEANUX
8%
NONE
Agile
10% Design Sprints
WATERFALL
Design Process
Waterfall
None
LeanUX
17%
DESIGN SPRINTS Combination / Hybrid
Other
30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
45%
AGILE
Tools
We asked about a variety of tool categories—for the most
part, software—from prototyping and wireframing to project
management and user research. The answer choices includ-
ed 95 tools, but another 668 were entered in “other” fields:
clearly there’s a lot of variety from which to chose from in
design tools.
Respondents use an average of 12 tools, and salary generally
rises with the number of tools used. Users of 7 or fewer tools
have a median salary of just $58K, while those who use more
than 7 but less than 14 have a median of $78K, and those
who used 14 or more have $89K. The corresponding adjusted
medians preserve this upward pattern: $66K, $73K, $81K.
Even among designers with similar levels of experience, those
that have a larger set of tools earn more.
Some of the most ubiquitous tools are project management/
collaboration tools, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Slack.
Both the need to have consistent platforms across organiza-
tions and these applications’ ease of use are likely contributors
to their higher usage rates. The variations in salary among
users of project management tools are not significant.
30
PROJECT MANAGEMENT / COLLABORATION
11%
ASANA
17%
23% BASECAMP
EVERNOTE
31%
GITHUB
32% GoogleDrive
TRELLO Dropbox
Slack
53% Trello
Tool
SLACK GitHub
Evernote
54% Basecamp
DROPBOX Asana
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
59%
GOOGLEDRIVE
Tools: Wireframing and Prototyping
Sketch/Invision users
THE VAST MAJORITY OF RESPON-
tend to earn slightly Illustrator (40%), Balsamiq (17%),
DENTS use at least wireframing or above-average salaries, and InDesign (17%) for wirefram-
prototyping tools (93%), and about ing. We find only two patterns
half use five or more. The most while Illustrator/InDesign of strong co-usage between the
popular wireframing and prototyp- users tend to earn slightly set of tools in the survey: users of
ing tools are not software, but pen/ Adobe’s Illustrator and InDesign,
pencil and paper. These are used by below average. and between Sketch and Invision
respondents of all ages and experi- users. Sketch/Invision users tend to
ence: there is no indication that they earn slightly above-average sala-
will be replaced by software anytime soon. CSS/HTML is also ries, while Illustrator/InDesign users tend to earn slightly
frequently selected, especially for prototyping (44%), less for below average. In particular, the 6% of the sample that
wireframing (22%). use Illustrator and InDesign but not either Sketch or Invi-
Other popular tools include Invision (41%), Axure (26%), sion have an especially low median salary of $54K (median
and Keynote (19%) for prototyping; and Sketch (40%), adjusted salary: $55K).
33
WIREFRAMING
17%
INDESIGN
17%
22%
BALSAMIQ
14%
OMNIGRAFFLE
CSS/HTML
40% 11%
ILLUSTRATOR KEYNOTE
6%
40% AXURE
SKETCH
4%
UXPIN
57%
PENCIL AND PAPER
34
WIREFRAMING
Pencil and paper
Sketch
Illustrator
CSS/HTML
Balsamiq
Tool
InDesign
Omnigraffle
Keynote
Axure
UXPin
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
35
PROTOTYPING
11%
AFTER EFFECTS
19% 6%
MARVEL
KEYNOTE
26%
AXURE
5%
PROTO.IO
41%
INVISION
5%
PIXATE
44%
HTML/CSS
4%
PRINCIPLE
56% 4%
PEN AND PAPER
FRAMER
4%
FLINTO
36
PROTOTYPING
Pen and paper
HTML/CSS
Invision
Axure
Keynote
After Effects
Tool
Marvel
Proto.io
Pixate
Principle
Framer
Flinto
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
37
Tools: Information Organization / Architecture
THE NEXT TOOL CATEGORY IS INFORMATION Sort, Google Drawings, Simple Card Sort, and XMind.
ORGANIZATION/ARCHITECTURE, including software for Users of each of these four tools have above-average
card sorting and mind mapping. 45% of respondents use at salaries. ( For XMind, median salary was only $70K, but
least one tool in this category, but most that did use just one. median adjusted salary was $86K. The shift is due to
No single information organization/ XMind being much more
architecture tool is used by more popular outside of the US
than 10% of the sample, in stark Respondents who use any than within the US.) More
contrast with some of the other generally, respondents who
tool categories, such as wireframing information organization/ use any information organi-
or project management.
architecture tool earn more zation /architecture tool earn
The most commonly used more than those that don’t:
information organization/
than those that don’t: the difference in median
architecture tools are Optimal adjusted salary is $9K.
38
INFORMATION ORGANIZATION / ARCHITECTURE
4%
MIND NODE
4%
4% GLIFFY
DRAW.IO
5%
MINDMEISTER SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
Optimal Sort
5% Google Drawings
XMIND
Simple Card Sort
6% XMind
Tool
SIMPLE CARD SORT MindMeister
Draw.io
6% Gliffy
GOOGLE DRAWINGS Mind Node
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
10%
OPTIMAL SORT
39
Tools: User Research

and Testing
The category of user research and testing tools is notable for
its variety: 21 tools are used by at least 1% of the sample, far
more than any other category. About two-thirds of the sam-
ple use one or more of these tools, although only 30% of the
sample use more than two.
The top tools in this category are SurveyMonkey, Skype,
GotoMeeting, User Testing, Google Hangouts, and Webex.
Differences in salaries among users of various user research
tools are not significant, although, as with information organi-
zation/architecture tools, respondents who use at least one of
these tools tend to have higher salaries than those that don’t,
again by a margin of $9K.
TASKS
USER (MAJOR INVOLVEMENT ONLY)
RESEARCH AND TESTING
8%
TYPEFORM
16% 6%
WEBEX MORAE
17%
GOOGLE HANGOUTS
6%
19% SILVERBACK
USER TESTING
5%
19% OPTIMAL
GOTOMEETING
4%
USER ZOOM
23% 4%
SKYPE SURVEYGIZMO
25%
SURVEYMONKEY
41
TASKS
USER (MAJOR INVOLVEMENT ONLY)
RESEARCH AND TESTING
SurveyMonkey
Skype
GotoMeeting
User Testing
Google Hangouts
Webex
Tool
TypeForm
Morae
Silverback
Optimal
User Zoom
SurveyGizmo
0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K
Range/Median
42
Conclusion
THE FIELD OF DESIGN HAS SEEN PROFOUND CHANGES IN designers can benefit from understanding what designers use
THE LAST DECADE—new mediums, new tools, new frame- and how they work.
works for thinking about design and how and where design When we quote statistics about salary, for example, that users
principles should be applied. Keeping up with the evolving tool of this tool make this much more than users of that tool, it’s
ecosystem can have an impact on one’s career development. important to remember that learning the “high salary” tool is
We see that those adopting particular tools and techniques, not guaranteed to give you a raise. This survey data is obser-
e.g., Sketch and Invision, Agile, information management, and vational, and we can’t assume cause and effect. On the other
testing, all correlating with higher salaries. We also see that hand, knowing that particularly well-paid designers frequently
those who know more tools, work in larger organizations, use some tool might be a potential sign that this tool is espe-
interact with a wider variety of roles, and work on multiple cially efficient or powerful, and that alone could be enough
platforms earn more—information that designers can use to justification for trying out a new tool.
help expand their career horizons.
This research is an ongoing project, and it depends on
As design principles and design thinking move beyond the your participation. If you’ve found this report useful, please
world of designers, we see these findings as relevant well consider taking 5 to 10 minutes to complete the 2018 survey
beyond the world of design. Software developers, data scien- yourself for next year’s report: oreilly.com/design/2018-
tists, or anyone who does design work or works closely with design-salary-survey. Thank you!
43
Appendix A: Adjusted Median Salary

GEOGRAPHY AND EXPERIENCE CLEARLY MAKE A control over the sampling. This correlation is likely just noise
DIFFERENCE IN SALARY, and this is fully expected. Howev- that we should try to filter out.
er, since geography and experience can correlate with other The solution we use in this report is to provide, when appro-
variables, unless we analyze all three variables together, it can priate, an additional metric, the adjusted mean salary. The
be hard to tell whether variations in salary are due to these first step in computing this metric: is to create a simple model
variables or to geography/experience. to predict salary using country/state and experience. After try-
For example, age correlates with experience and with salary, but ing a few economic metrics to quantify geography, we found
if we consider groups of respondents with equal experience, that per capita GDP gave the best results.2 Using this survey’s
then age no longer correlates with salary (at least, strongly or data, no complicated modeling technique or transformation
monotonically). This is what we mean when we say that age and made a big improvement over a simple linear model, so we
salary don’t correlate when we “block” years of experience. stuck with the latter. The model is:
To give another example, this time with geography: the predicted_salary = 1.95 x years_of_experience + 1.26 x
median salary of the 9% of respondents who say they code per_capita_GDP – 1.29
over 20 hours/week is $50K, while the rest of the sample where monetary values are in thousands of USD, and years of ex-
(those who spend less time coding, if any at all) is $80K. perience is capped at 20 (for someone with more than 20 years
However, the difference is attributable to the fact that most of experience, the value inserted into the model is 20). For exam-
of the people who code over 20 hours/week happen to come ple, the predicted salary of someone with 7 years of experience
from places that have lower salaries in general. For example, from Australia (where the per capita GDP is $51K) is $76.5K. This
36% of respondents from India, Russia, and Ukraine say that model explains about half of salary variance in this sample.
they code over 20 hours/week, while only 1% of California re-
spondents do. This probably shouldn’t be taken to mean that
CA design professionals don’t code: correlations like this will
2 Both country and state numbers were taken from Wikipedia. Country
appear frequently on such surveys; namely, when there is little figures are from the IMF column. http://bit.ly/2iCUvcD.
44
We use this model to create the aforementioned “adjusted we are really just including residuals, and the conversion
median salary” statistic. This works by recalculating salaries from residual to adjusted salary (i.e., the operation of adding
as if the respondents who received them were from a single, $76.7K) is performed to convert the number to something
fixed place and had the same amount of experience. The less abstract and so that we don’t have to introduce technical
actual fixed values are somewhat arbitrary, and we pick values language (“residual”) into the text.
close to the sample averages: seven years of experience and It is likely that with more data, a more complicated model (i.e.,
$51K for the per capita GDP, which is roughly the per capita one that still just takes in experience and GDP, but is not a simple
GDP of Australia, Denmark, Singapore, Ohio, North Carolina, linear model) would provide better results. For example, it seems
and Wisconsin. To adjust someone’s salary, we simply subtract likely that not every incremental year of experience is the same
an amount that the model attributes to their experience and (e.g., 3 to 4 years versus 13 to 14 years) or that experience has
geography, and then add a fixed amount for seven years of the same relation with salary in every place (e.g., one year of
experience and a per capita GDP of $51K. experience adds as much in Switzerland as it does in Poland).
Perhaps a simpler way of understanding the calculation is to con- However, the simple linear model above performed just as
sider the residual, the difference between the observed (report- well as a few others we tried that attempted to explain a more
ed) salary and the predicted salary. If someone earns much more complicated relationship, and furthermore, the simplicity has the
than we would expect given their experience and location, their major advantage that it is easier for you, the reader, to plug in
salary residual is high. We calculate the residual and then add it your own numbers. Unlike the models in other O’Reilly salary
to $76.7K, the predicted salary for someone with seven years of surveys, including last year’s Design report, this model only takes
experience living in a place with a per capita GDP of $51K. two variables, so insofar as there are other relevant variables that
For example, suppose someone from New York with five affect salary, this model will miss them. More fundamentally,
years of experience earns $120K. According to the model, this the variance of salaries for any given experience and per capita
person is expected to earn $100.3K, so they “outperform” GDP is quite high: the predicted salary that the model outputs
the expectation by $19.7K (this is the residual). If we add this is an average, and any particular salary may fall a ways from it.
$19.7K to the fixed $76.7K, we arrive at the adjusted sala- For that reason, the real value of this model is not to predict
ry, $96.4K. It is worth noting that a single adjusted value in someone’s salary, but to allow us to compare groups of salaries
isolation doesn’t have much relevance; the real purpose of in a way that the comparison is minimally impacted by significant
presenting these adjusted values is comparison. In a sense, differences in experience and geography.
45
We need your data.
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critical. The survey is now open for the 2018 report, and if
you can spare just 10 minutes of your time, we encourage
you to take the survey.
http://www.oreilly.com/design/2018-design-salary-survey
47
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John King & Roger Magoulas

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vey is to give you a helpful resource for your career,

John King & Roger Magoulas

0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

65% EUROPE EUROPE

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

Age Versus Years of Experience

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

27% LESS THAN 5

THE SAMPLE IS SPLIT FAIRLY EVENLY BY GENDER. The

Industry, Company Size

Healthcare, banking, and

Manufacturing / Heavy Industry

Nonprofit / Trade Association

Search / Social Networking

0K 50K 100K 150K 200K

Coding Time, Programming Languages

Working with Other People

The minority of respondents (7%) who

19% More than 50

NUMBER OF PROGRAMMERS/ENGINEERS AT YOUR COMPANY

7% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

0K 20K 40K 60K 80K 100K 120K

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

DESIGNERS Product managers

(None of the above)

0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K

83% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

55% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

30K 60K 90K 120K 150K

Tools: Wireframing and Prototyping

Pencil and paper

0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K

Pen and paper

0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K

Tools: Information Organization / Architecture

0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K

Tools: User Research

0K 30K 60K 90K 120K 150K

Appendix A: Adjusted Median Salary

3. Participate in free webcasts. Learn design skills and tools

4. Follow O’Reilly Design on Twitter. We scour the Interwebs and pass

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