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2017 Design Tools Survey Results

over 5 years ago from , I do the UX

2017 Design Tools Survey

Hey everyone—

I spent the better part of my holiday break analyzing the results of the 2017 Design Tools Survey. Thanks to everyone who participated (nearly 2,000 people did)! This is my first time doing something like this, so I'm more than open to feedback. I've included some things I'd like to improve for next year.

Thanks again!

See the Results

29 comments

  • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, over 5 years ago

    to the 26 people using Sketch on Windows: what sorcery is this and how do i get in on that?

    7 points
  • Weston VierreggerWeston Vierregger, over 5 years ago

    my affinity designer evangelism is having almost no effect on the industry. i cant believe it.

    5 points
    • Derek Nguyen, over 5 years ago

      There're dozen of us affinity designer users!

      0 points
    • Greg Warner, over 5 years ago

      Pretty sure there's a lot more than a dozen. I think a lot of us are still using it alongside other tools that handle modular systems better at the moment, though.

      0 points
      • Weston VierreggerWeston Vierregger, over 5 years ago

        true i'm not a big fan of their symbols system, sketch's system is more efficient for me too. but i love the pen and drawing tools, i love the incredibly efficient layer panel (masking is so easy), the typography tools are miles ahead of sketch still (and on par with adobe). and the best feature is the pricing.

        that said... the updates to framer and sketch actually have me opening up affinity less and less. but i'd give anything for either to have a powerful pen tool... better yet, the incredibly powerful pens in apps like Glyphs or Fontlab would be sweet.

        1 point
    • Taylor PalmerTaylor Palmer, over 5 years ago

      Actually, Affinity product popped up quite a bit, but most never made it to the visible parts of the chart. If you look at the raw data, you'll see Affinity all over the place. My guess is that Affinity is more popular outside of UI design, which was the emphasis of this survey.

      1 point
  • Matt C, over 5 years ago

    Very well-presented results!

    The most interesting result to me was the handoff tools. InVision/Zeplin are neck and neck which makes sense but #3 is nothing?! That's crazy to me! Especially since most respondents are UX/UI or Product designers. That's like a sex position survey where the 3rd result was "No sex for me - just masturbation, thx".

    What I disagreed with the most was this quote:

    Most memorable response: "None. Can we just stick to one that works? Designers are already pretty tired as it stands."

    I've actually seen this opinion pop up a few times here. It's becoming a peeve of mine lol. As someone who suffered through ~15 years of the dark ages of design tools I'd much rather have too many options than not enough. I'm excited to see what new developments there are this year.

    5 points
    • Taylor PalmerTaylor Palmer, over 5 years ago

      I agree. I feel like competition breeds innovation, and prevents the top tools from stagnating or getting too comfortable.

      5 points
  • Emily Hall, over 5 years ago

    These are some really awesome results - although it does surprise me how little people use monitoring/analytics tools.

    3 points
  • Emanuel S.Emanuel S., over 5 years ago

    Really great to be a part of the survey, I think this was awesome initiative. Now we need an updated salary survey!

    2 points
  • Shashwat Amin, over 5 years ago

    Was hoping figma would be in the top 3 in most categories. Damn

    2 points
  • Jay WycheJay Wyche, over 5 years ago

    You're missing writing tools. Content IS design. Stop drawing boxes, everyone. Start making meaning.

    I agree with the sentiment but... ugh.

    It's like design conference workshop title mad libs.

    1 point
  • Matt HallMatt Hall, over 5 years ago

    "Wire framing? oh, you mean when I take LSD and I envision the layout?"

    Best response ever

    1 point
  • Mick NMick N, over 5 years ago

    This is fantastic. Thanks for putting in the time to put this together. Well thought out and I love that you're taking things on board and learning from the process as well. I enjoyed seeing your insights on where you could improve for next year.

    1 point
  • Tejas Bhalerao, over 5 years ago

    This is Gold. Thanks for compiling and sharing the results Taylor!

    1 point
  • Andy MerskinAndy Merskin, over 5 years ago

    Cool findings, thanks for gathering all this!

    1 point
  • Dawit Elias, over 5 years ago

    Surprised to not see Abstract anywhere.

    0 points