The State of Design — Swedish Edition 2018
This is the result of the survey, The State of UX — Swedish Edition 2018 (here are the result from 2017, 2016 & 2015 in Swedish). The survey was in Swedish (next year I’ll add English) but this report will be in mostly English.
The answers was collected during July and September 2018 and 355 people answered this year(hey, we got a record!).
Summary
- More strategic designers and design leaders answered this year. Are we seeing a trend of organizations finally start to see design as a strategic capability?
- More service designers answered, are more companies starting to understand that design is is not only about digital?
- The salary between men and women is more equal than before and the average salary is +3,1% compared to last year.
Demography
First some demographic numbers so you will get a better picture of who answered the survey.
What is your gender ?
What is your age?
The largest group who answered was between 26 and 45.
What is your design experience?
The largest group who answered have worked with design for 2–7 years.
What type of company do you work at?
Most people who answered work in product/service company or consulting. For the first year more people who answered comes from product/service companies (going from 34% to 43%). I’ven seen this trend for some time and now we have some numbers on it.
What is your title?
Most people are using the title UX Designer. As I broaden the survey this year to include other designers like Service Designer I also got some answers from this discipline.
Interesting to see that more strategic roles, lead roles and lead designers starts to influence the market, which is probably an effect when larger companies start to build their own design capacity and need leaders.
I also noted that roles like product designers haven’t gain traction yet in Sweden yet.
Where do you work?
85% who answered work in the Swedens 3 largest cities even though there is a spread in many other cities. Some answered they work in many cities, not just one. And some who answered also worked in other countries.
What school have you attended?
Most people have attended other schools than the pre populated ones I had in the survey. After that comes Linköping University, Stocholm University, Chalmers, Berghs, KTH, Umeå University & Hyper Island.
In the other bucket we found: Konstfack, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Otago, Luleå tekniska universitet, Central Saint Martins, The Art Institute of California — San Diego, Högskolan i Gävle, Lunds tekniska högskola, Linneuniversitetet, Högskolan Dalarna, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Lund Universitet, Högskolan i Halmstad, IHM, Mälardalens Högskola, Beckmans Designhögskola, TU Delft i Nederländerna, Högskolan Väst, Academy of Arts, San Francisco, Högskolan i Kristianstad, Jönköpings Tekniska Högskola, Broby Grafiska, MGPU Moskva and University of Zagreb.
What educational level did you go to?
This year most people answered who has a an Kandidatexamen (up 3%) and Masterexamen (down 4%)
How much do you think your education help you in your daily work?
Most people seem to think so. But the average is down from about 7 to 6 in average on the scale. How can we improve the design educations so that it really prepares students coming to work?
What do you love?
So what do designers love? Create a better world, meet people, solve problems, always learning new things, understanding needs and researching.
Here are some common words, including some quotes below.
Att lära mig nya saker och att lösa problem
Variationen då jag jobbar på ett litet företag och får ta roll som både UX, UI och AD.
Att kunna påverka för användarna och samtidigt utvecklas väldigt mycket själv. Ett ständigt lärande.
Att få människor att utvecklas och hjälpa människor att skapa fantastiska tjänster.
Jag lär mig mya saker varje dag, bidrar till en stor förbättring av digitala produkter, har kontakt med många andra roller inom organisationen, får tillfälle att skapa intresse kring UX.
Att gå hela vägen från vision och strategi till digitala tjänster och konkreta resultat-
Att få vara kreativ!
Samtalen. Möjligheten att få människor se på nya sätt, skifta perspektiv.
Att nörda ner mig i problem
Att befinna mig i ständig utveckling gör mig lycklig och att arbeta med design till nytta för användare av de digitala tjänster vi utformar gör att jag känner att jag gör något meningsfullt. Att lära sig mer om hur människor interagerar och fungerar är också utvecklande.
Tvärsnittet mellan kundbehov, affärsnytta och IT/teknik! Nyckelroll som får “vara med överallt”. Insikter genom att träffa kunder — intervjuer, användningstest m.m. A/B test är galet intressant!
Friheten att välja inriktning inom UX och hur mångsidig rollen är generellt.
Kombinationen av strategiskt tänkande och kreativitet. Att jobba med förändring och att kunna göra livet enklare och bättre för andra människor
Att vara med och utveckla mina medarbetares förståelse för hur mycket de påverkar en stor mängd människors vardag, och hur viktig den uppgiften är.
Att få leda fantastiskt kompetenta designers och tillsammans med dem göra allt för att förenkla och förbättra digitala tjänster för företagets kunder. OCH att vi har så kul medan vi gör det!
So what is less fun?
Most designers fight for about the same things. Respect, understanding & craft time. Designers often having to explain and convince other people in the organization about the work and value they bring. Designer often have to cope with lots of meetings, organizational bureaucracy and having hard time to meet the “real” customer.
Stress, ansvar utan makt.
När ögonen vägra öppnas.
Att jag är ensam designer på företaget och inte har någon annan UX-designer att diskutera med.
Att folk inte förstår vad jag gör, och tycker att jag “jobbar långsamt” eftersom de har andra förväntningar på vad jag gör.
Att argumentera för varför det är viktigt att vi ser till användarna.
Människor och verksamheter (både i och utanför vår sfär) som inte förstår design och motarbetar eller är i vägen. Stressen i att försöka hänga med i ständig utveckling både på bredden och på djupet.
Vissa rutinerade personer som vägrar prova nya metoder och lära sig nya saker. Motvind från chefer som finns där för att bromsa och inte stödja.
Juridikavdelningar.
Odatadrivna tyckanden!
Middle managers. Och folk som utgår inte från produktens värde för användare.
Att behöva medla mellan teknik och design när båda egentligen vill samma sak men pratar olika språk.
Svårt att få hjälp och gehör till t ex önskan om att anställa fler designers när UX/UI frågor prioriteras ner jämfört med annan utveckling.
”Omogen” bransch gör det svårt att sälja värdet av ett gediget service design projekt till uppdragsgivarna. Det är riktigt affärsvärde vi kan skapa men får inte betalt eller mandat att leverera det.
Rekrytera användare.
Resursplanering, raka roadmaps, budgetramar, internpolitik, oförståelse för analys- och designprocessen som tyvärr fortfarande finns.
Att det känns som att gå i tuggummi. Att fortfarande, 20 år senare, behöver motivera områdets existens.
Kompromissa och konsensus.
Hantera konflikter mellan delar i företaget att navigera politiskt i ett företag istället för att fokusera på affären.
What are good qualities as a designer?
So what maress a good designer? What do you need as as a designer to survive in the trenches and among people “who don’t get it”? Skills that often get mentioned are empathy, sensitivity, being a good listener, great at communication, humble and curious.
Nyfiken och prestigelös, tar in andras input
När man kan gå utanför sina egna upplevelser och verkligen på djupet förstå sin målgrupp.. när man inte bara följer trender
Nyfikenhet. Kommunikativ. Sammarbetsvillig. Har en överblick. Designar för användarna
En som klarar av att förstå olika intressenters behov (inklusive användare) och fånga upp och hitta på lösningar för dessa behov.
Någon som lyckas kombinera humanism och allmän förståelse för mänskliga fenomen med teknik, samhälle och ekonomi. Duktig på att se helheter och kreativa vägar framåt när andra sitter fast i detaljerna.
Fokus på värdeskapande och förståelse för att det är något som varierar kraftigt. Förmågan att anpassa sig till kontext och förutsättningar.
Förstå sin och andras roller i varje projekt
En bra lyssnare och en duktig skapare.
Kreativ. Kunna överblicka en helhet men också se detaljer. Bra kommunikationsegenskaper, både att lyssna men att också sälja idéer och lösningar.
Att våga misslyckas — och försöka igen
A person who can think strategically and tactically
En som kan metoderna väl, kan anpassa dem på inspirerande sätt och se till att få alla med på tåget.
En bra designer förstår sin styrkor och svagheter så att hon kan paras ihop med en annan designer som kompletterar henne. Utöver det gillar jag designers som har lätt att förhålla sig till komplexa förhållanden mellan slutanvändare, affär och den kontext i vilken designen ska leva.
How often do you meet your users or customers?
It is fantastic that 56% you designers meet their customers and users once a month or more. This year the numbers has gone down from previous year. (62% 2017 & 2016 and 53% 2015). I would say that meeting your customers is vital when you work with user centered design. And for you who isn’t allowed, cant’t get financing or don’t have the mandate, use this survey to show how other companies work.
What are common methods & tools?
Creating prototypes and holding workshops seems natural. Of course meeting people and meetings in a natural part of work. Nice to see both qualitative research and customer journeys.
How do you learn new things?
Most of design learn by reading online, through colleagues and friends and working in interesting projects and going to conferences. Only about 50% read work related books and only 15% attend courses.
What work related book have you read recently?
I’m still surprised that Jeffs and Joshs Lean UX is still number one book to read. This year is also Sprint popular again. Last year User Story Mapping was not even mentioned once this year (strange…). This year we also see Don’t make me think, This is service design thinking, UX strategy, Org design for design orgs, Design systems and LIV 3.0. Great books everyone should read.
Which design conferences are the best?
So where do designers go to learn new things, network and have fun? From Business to Buttons and UX Open is still most popular in Sweden, just like last year. This year IXDA is more popular than last year and a new one is Service Design Global Conference (probably because more Service Designers answered this year).
In the other bucket you can find: Mind the product, Leading Design, UX Strat, Conversion Jam, Norm Nielsen, Frontiers, The Conference, SXSW, UXDX, Geek Girl, Tillgänglighetsdagarna, An Event Apart & Gather
What maturity level do you think design is in your organization?
These numbers are a bit hard to interpret, I would love to say the there is a movement from left to right but cant say it with confidence. We see that level 2 (interested) & level 4 (committed) is i going down and at the same time level 3 (invested) & level 5 (engaged) going up. Level 6 (embedded) is still on the same levels. If I think positive I could say that level 2 is moving to level 3 and level 4 is going to level 5, but that I cannot be sure of.
2018 vs 2017
2018
Where do you work?
As there are more people answering who work at product/service companies we can see that more people work from their office (up 3%).
How do you often work?
Working in a cross function team seem to be norm these days even if some are still working with their guild.
Where is design located in your organization?
Design is often located in the IT organization (up 4%), Digital channels (up 7%) or Communication (up 12%).
What kind of work?
The question was, what kind of work do you do as a designer, is it only solutions, wireframes and visual design or is it to understand the problem and be part of the whole process (where 0 is only solution and 5 is whole process)?
It’s nice to see that most designers are part of both the problem and solution space and are able to work in the whole process. If you are not, show these numbers to your manager and explain what you need.
What are common tasks & methods in your daily work?
UX & Service Design is really a broad area. Designing solutions is a number one activity. It is nice to see that qualitative research is done by about 70% and that many do some kind of customer journey work (46%) and even explorative research (36%).
I also checked what was in the “other” bucket: coaching of other designers, evangelize design in the organization, frontend work, accessibility work, plan and set metrics, UX copy, quality assurance, project management, handover to developers, general leadership, education & lectures and design capacity building.
Typical tasks
Common methods
What are your tools and programs?
It was really nice to see that paper and pen is the number one tool for designers, who could have know. It was also a surprise that Powerpoint & Keynote is a common tool. Sketch has really taken off (except in the enterprise organisations where Mac is still not allowed…)
In the “other” bucket I found: Whiteboard, Framer, Proto.io, HTML & CSS, Google Docs, Tobii Pro Sprint, Smaply, Typeform, Omnigrafle, Sublime text, Mindmanager, Abstract, Realtimeboard, UX Prin, Atomic, Jira, Principle, React, Excel, Usabilla, Klipfolio, Custellence, Usability Hub
Do you have ownership of the design questions in your organization?
The average has gone down this year from 7.56 to 6.8, all time low. Not good, keep fighting.
2018
2017
Is is clear in your organization who is responsible for design?
Is there a clear design process in your organization?
Are you actively looking for a new position?
20% of the respondant say that they are looking for a new position. That is 3% less than last year.
Where do you look for job?
LinkedIn (+3%) is till the most popular place to look for new positions. After that comes colleagues & friends.
In the other bucket there is, Uptrail, TRIB, Glassdoor, Google, Twitter, Monster, recruiters, directly on company sites, network meetings, Indeed, Hyper Island job board, alumni networks & eWork.
Why are people looking for new positions?
Here are some common things that make designers want to leave their job.
- The organization do not want to work in a user centered way
- Often have to explain the design role and what value we create
- Boring projects
- The working environment do not support design work
- No challenges
- Bad leadership
- Want a better salary
- A more flexible working situation
- Want to work closer to home
- Want (more) design colleagues
- Develop and learn new things
- Consulting is no fun
- Want to work abroad
- More saying and influence
- Less admin
- Another type of culture
- Create more customer value
- Bad colleagues
- Less waterfall and more agile and teams
- Tired and slow organization
- Want a new design role, like UX lead
- Want another type of role, like product owner
Salary statistics in Sweden 2018
First some information about the data (the disclaimer). Be careful to draw too certain conclusions, use this data as a starting point and remember, the salary is just one part of the job.
320 of 355 answered the question about salary. 132 of 355 answered the questions about hourly price rate. This year I changed the salary question from an open ended question to a fixed range of salary from 25.000 to 100.000 in the survey. There was also an option for “below 25.000” and above “100.000”.
- The answers was between 25.000 and 90.000. One answered below 25.000.
- 30 people answered that they have a salary of 60.000 or above (8 last year). 31 answered they had a salary of 30.000 or below (15 last year)
- Average salary for all answers: 43.950.- (+3,1%) (42.610 last year)
- Average salary for women (166 answers): 43.211:- (+4,5%) (41.355 last year)
- Average salary for men (154 answers): 44.747 (+1,9%) (43.924 last year)
Average salary per gender
Average salary distribution
As you can see, the salary range is most common between 35–50.000:-
Description: The number above the bar is how many answered per group, for example 44 women said to have a salary of 40–50.000:-
And the average salary per gender year to year.
The average salary gap between men and women is better compared from last year but there is a gap of 1536:- per month (3,5%). Last year it was 2569:- (6,2%).
Average salary / city
Here is the average salary per city. Please be careful to use the data where there is low data points.
- The Stockholm region 45.142:- (226 answers)
- The Göteborg region 41.000:- (44 answers)
- The Malmö region 43.600:- (15 answers)
- Smaller cities 39.036:- (28 answers from all around Sweden)
Average salary / Experience
This is the average salary per design experience. As you can see, the longer you work the better salary you get, no magic here.
Description: Blue is women and orange is men. The numbers above the graph is the average salary and how many is in that group. For example, the average salary from women 8–10 year is 45.048:- and 23 women answered.
2017
Average salary / type of company
This year I have added freelancer (egen företagare) and non profit organization. I also added gender the graph. You can see comparing numbers below from 2017.
2017
Average salary / size of company
Here is the average salary per size of organization. In large, the larger the organization is the better salary you will get. The explanation for this could be that the larger the company is the more strategic design is needed. Larger organizations also have a bigger need for design leaders.
Average salary / design level
I have grouped different titles into different groups. To not make too complicated I created four different groups, Designer, Senior Designer, Design Leader and Other.
- Other: frontend developer, business analytics, business designer & librarian (12 people in this bucket did not answer any title at all)
- Designer: UX Designer, Service Designer, Visual Designer & AD etc.
- Senior Designer: Lead Designer, UX Lead, UX Architect etc.
- Design Leader: Mangar, CDO, Head of Design, Design Director etc.
The biggest change this year is that many more Head of…, Director of… and Design Managers answered the survey (thanks!). More designers in the organizations naturally creates a demand of design leaders and more strategic designers.
The levels in the different groups looks about the same as last year, compare below from 2017.
2017
Average salary / size of organization / design level
This is a summary of average salary, size of the company and design level (as described above). It looks like the larger the organization, the better salary you get in almost every case.
Hourly rate
Consultants and freelancers often have a hourly rate. There is still a wide range in price, from 500 to 2600 with an average of 1102:- exkl. tax (+7,9%). Last year the hourly rate was 1021:- exkl tax.
Of course the price depends on the experience (with some variations).
What other perks do you have at your job?
Here are the some the most common perks for designers in Sweden 2018.
Flexible working hours, work from home, pension, training allowance, breakfast, fika & afterwork, centrally located office and more the 5 weeks of vacation, company health care & paid education.
Thanks to
- To everyone who has answered, shared and liked
- Pexels.com and all photographers for photos
- Tableau public for free data analytics
Feedback
Please have look at the data and numbers, if you have any feedback and questions, let me know at hello@jenswedin.com. Next year the survey will be in Swedish & English.
