Experience and the Spec Work Debate

Experience and the Spec Work Debate

on Apr 10th 2012 with 7 comments

Last week, I posted some surprising results from Web Design Confidential (launching with Rockable Press later this week) regarding our community’s opinions on spec work. Our readers had a lot to say! A lot of you requested further statistics comparing opinions on spec work to the respondent’s experience. It was such a good discussion that I was happy to oblige. This is a special statistic report not included in the book and pulled just for WebDesignTuts+ readers! Take a look below the cut for statistics and how experience influences our opinion on industry topics.

To give us a better idea of the relationship between years of experience and opinions on spec work, I cross-tabulated the results with another question on the survey: “How many years have you been working as a web designer?”  Due to the limitations of SurveyMonkey, I only cross-tabulated the top four responses from the question on spec work.

You can see that the response, “I would never participate in spec design competitions.” increases sharply the more years of experience the respondent had. Likewise, the more experience designers have, the less likely they are to participate in spec design competitions. Those with little or no experience were much more likely. The red bar (“I have no opinion on spec work.”) is interesting, though–we’re most opinionated during the middle years (6-9 years of experience) then seem to “mellow out” once again as we get older. Relatively inexperienced designers are still the most likely to hold no opinion, however.

Now that you’ve seen the way experience effects our opinions on spec work, does it pan out like you thought? Why do you think “no opinion” increases again after more than 9 years experience? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 
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Amanda is a content strategist and Editor for Tuts+ Premium and Rockable Press. Part writer, part designer, all media geek, she blogs over at her personal site.  

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  • http://palpaldal.com Nuruzzaman Sheikh

    A really nice post and some real-world survey! First of all thanks a lot @Amanda for doing something very important for designers these days :)

    I’m relatively new to web-design and development work (almost 3 years though) and I don’t like spec work at all. It’s a great pain as I worked for some projects and bad luck I lost almost all of them. And sometime my client choose a stupid design (the design wasn’t related to his site) but not mine.

    And these things happens with everyone and it is a stupid working process. It greatly hinders designers creativity and design energy. Check this little post about spec work Spec work is Bad by about.com

    The process should to be clear:- first the client should check our profile then choose the designer/designers and work with him/them. If the designer can’t satisfy the client, then this is the client’s bad luck as he wasn’t able to choose the right person for his job.

    Spec work simply waste times. Check 99Designs. And you’ll find some successful designers won 30+ jobs out of some 400+ projects. I’m sure No Good Designer will choose this stupid process.

    Once again thanks a lot for this great and important post and survey.

    I think the freelance services marketplace should think more creatively by taking this thingies in mind.

    • http://rockablepress.com Amanda Hackwith
      Author

      Thanks, Nuruzzaman. Good point on the process. Setting up the right expectations between the client and designer really is key, and that’s just something that is frequently impossible in a spec work scenerio.

      • http://palpaldal.com Nuruzzaman Sheikh

        Yes, I’m totally agree with you.

  • Elliot Mitchum

    Spec work is really a classic example of ‘you get what you pay for’, and from the helpful graph posted you can see that the markup of designers willing to participate are the less experienced ones. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t to say the actual work itself looks bad, but more that the higher experienced have a better understanding of the ‘design process’

    I may be wrong, but that is my feeling. When I began design and development, I was really attracted to spec work for a few reasons. It was mainly because the money seemed to be a lot, and coming out of college and trying to build a client base or work for a company seems so daunting (especially these days). At the same time, spec work really inspired me to push my skills and develop myself (it’s not all bad).

    I think it’s important to spread this topic to all designers/developers, including potential ones. This topic may become even larger with more and more designers/developers joining the scene.

    Thank you for this post Amanda,
    it was really interesting.

    Elliot

  • J Albert

    The data that is presented here needs to be shown to any person entering the Web & Application Design arena. To many are being promised magic carpet rides to go to “colleges” and get this or that degree that will cause the great giants of the industry to pick them over those that are experienced.

    Spec work has been around for 1000′s of years. Many that participated in Spec work usually only do so 1 or 2 times. They get burned or never received a benefit for their time.

    5200 Designers around the world took place in this first survey. That is 52 designers vying for exposure to every top 100 business in just America. The number will have lowered some if we take in the consideration the Top 100 by region around the world. How many are trying to get a single job? Hundreds.

    I am not saying stop the training. Just ensure that they understand that to make it, you have to put your heart and soul into it. Not to earn a reprise from the grind, but to continually learn and evolve as the industry grows.

    I am saying this has to be in your blood or as some say, Design is in your DNA. I have been project manager, program manager, Director and Customer Executive and have driven Design and Development most of my life. Heck, the internet was not even in existence when I got into electronics design and build, repair and maintenance. Yes, I could have stayed in those areas, but my heart and mindset were always wanting to push the envelop. Do more with less and still make some great sites and grow businesses.

    I am one of the nerds that had a TRS80 black and white, color, and a hand built on a board with nails, wires and every part imaginable a Timex/Sinclare 8080 system. Yes, I am 50 and know that change is good. In fact it is life in general.

    Spec was alive then, as we each tried to improve the modems that they said were limited to 150baud. Eventually everyone earns there stripes, especially those that are gifted with the natural design gene. Some of us just do it on the side or for family. This, Envato, has given us a place to learn new things and become better for those that depend on us. Thank you. Spec is here, it will be here, it has been here and you are not going to push it out.

    Just a view of an old crusty disabled man who just loves to learn more and more everyday.

  • Ben

    I’ve only been learning design part time over the last couple of years (while working out of industry).

    The reason the experienced designers have no opinion on spec work is that they are too busy with PAID work to care.

    Many industries have periods of learning where you have to give up a little of your soul, because businesses/people rarely use blind faith where financial outlay is concerned.

    Not too many people get to be in the run-on side without cleaning the boots (or getting beaten up by the older players) a few times.

    WARNING! – OPINION ON SPEC WORK BELOW.

    I am pretty useless at coming up with ideas from a blank canvas. Spec work (as a minimum) provides me with a basic idea of a project to practice my workflow/skills etc. If I miss the deadline, I don’t care because it’s about practice. If I am lucky enough to have a job stick, it’s a little bonus.

    People offering spec work are trying to get the best value for money they can. We may not agree with it, but we all try to get great value at something in our lives.

    At worst, it’s a free resource for ideas for personal projects.

  • http://antispec.com Mark Collins

    I’m not sure if “I have no opinion on spec work” translates to “I don’t really understand the spec work problem”. For many designers spec work has never been on their radar, and therefore may have no opinion on it. Or does it mean I understand the problems with spec work but I really don’t care.

    Regardless we need to keep making noise and highlighting the problems with working on spec. Very interesting to see the stats broken down like this, thanks Amanda.

    Mark Collins
    Founder, AntiSpec