Respondent Profile
A snapshot of our participants and where and how they work.
Who’s included in this data?
We received responses from 243 people located in 35 countries on six continents—including junior practitioners, heads of large departments, freelancers, and everything in between.
This survey was posted publicly online and shared organically online—and as a result, it does not fully reflect the global content design and UX writing community. For example, we know that the survey was shared in many online communities for content professionals, as well as on private company-specific platforms—leading to large numbers of responses from some companies and in some locations, and fewer responses in others.
That said, these results provide robust qualitative data—particularly for content professionals working at product, ecommerce, or other “digital” companies in North America and Europe.
Participant snapshot
Location
54% - North America
34% - Europe
5% - Australia/NZ
2% - Middle East
2% - Asia
1% - Africa
1% - South America
Company type
71% - Product, ecommerce, or other “digital” company
12% - Agency, freelance or consultancy
4% - Finance/Banking
4% - Government organization or department
9% - Some other non-tech company or organization
Company size
37% - 5000+ employees
17% - 1001-5000 employees
17% - 301-1000 employees
11% - 51-150 employees
10% - 151-300 employees
10% - 50 or fewer employees
Types of job titles*
45% - Content design
24% - UX writing
14% - Content strategy
12% - Other type of title (e.g., copywriter, tech writer, content manager)
4% - General “content” title (e.g., head of content)
*These are normalized title categories, based on verbatim answers. For example, “senior content designer” and “manager, content design” both fall into the “content design” category.
What else we know about them
It’s (still) lonely out there.
It’s not news that content teams are often understaffed—or even teams of one. The data bore this out: more than 30% of respondents said they were the only person with their job title in their organization, and nearly 60% said there were 5 or fewer people with their job title.
Even in large companies, many respondents were also one of just a few employees with their job title.
14% of respondents at companies of 1,000+ employees said they were the only person with their job title
29% of respondents at companies with 1,000+ employees said there were 5 or fewer people with their job title
Titles and career paths are still in flux.
This survey was called the “content design and UX writing survey,” so perhaps it’s no surprise that nearly half of respondents’ current job titles are within “content design,” and another one-quarter are within “UX writing.”
However, that’s not always been the case for respondents: nearly half said that at some point in the past four years, their job title was “content strategist,” and another quarter said they’d had a “content writer” or “copywriter” title. We believe this reflects both shifting fashions in job titles at major tech companies (e.g., both Meta and Shopify shifted terminology from content strategy to content design in the past few years), as well as shifting career paths (e.g., a content strategist who previously worked on website projects moving into a product content job at a tech company).
Other common titles respondents said they used to have were content manager, technical writer, and UX designer. But there were also many outliers: operations manager, process lead, journalist—and even one person who used to be a parliamentary clerk.
We also noticed one interesting difference between titles in Europe and North America: in Europe, comparable numbers of respondents reported having a “content design” title (42%) as a “UX writing” title (36%). But in North America, 48% of respondents had a content design title, while only 16% had a UX writing title. Again, this is likely partially due to the naming conventions at a few large tech companies. (We did not have enough data from other continents to identify trends in titles outside of Europe and North America.)
Most respondents are remote or hybrid—and they like it that way.
We asked respondents how they work right now—remote, hybrid, or in-person. Then we asked them how they wanted to be working. Here’s what we found:
68% were working entirely or mostly remote, 28% were working hybrid, and only 4% said they were working entirely or mostly in an office.
Most respondents said that their current way of working… worked: 80% of both hybrid workers and fully remote workers reported that their current setup was also their desired setup.
Most hybrid workers who preferred a different setup wanted to be fully remote, and most remote workers who preferred a different setup wanted to be hybrid.
Almost no one wanted to be working in-person who wasn’t already doing so (only 8 people in the entire dataset said that was their preferred way of working, and 5 of them are already working that way).
Who they are outside of work
Near the end of the survey, we asked a less conventional question: “If money and stability weren’t very real and depressing issues, what would you be doing if you weren’t in content/UX?”
The responses we got were sometimes practical, sometimes whimsical, and often surprising—and we believe they say a lot about who this community is, beyond its professional identity: a creative, engaged group of people who care about doing things that matter and feeling connected to one another.
Content folks are writers, creatives, and doers at heart.
Almost a third of responses mentioned writing, creative arts, or performing, but people want to do it on their own terms. We heard about children’s books, travel writing, dancing, ceramics, comics, painting, singing (even on Broadway)—you name it.
Making randomly successful collages.
—Content lead, Canada
Writing poems and traveling the world.
—Senior content designer, Serbia
Hopefully lying on a beach, penning children’s books.
—Senior content strategist and UX copywriter, USA
I’d be an artist and plant terrariums also.
—Senior content strategist, Ireland
Honing my skills as a luthier.
—Senior UX writer/senior content designer, USA
Creating content and value for my personal platforms—Mythematical (on mythology or basically all things too fantastical), Prehistorica (on paleontology and prehistory or basically all things too old) and Cosmonomic (space exploration & astronomy or all things too far).
—UX design lead, India
Content Town would have some fun small businesses—and a lot of bookstores.
In these responses, a picture emerged of a town that would be lovely to live in—if not for capitalism and the cost of living.
It would have half a dozen bookstores, and at least as many animal rescues. There would be plenty of libraries, schools, physiotherapy and health clinics, landscape and interior designers, bakeries, cafes, and therapy clinics. We pictured it like a Richard Scarry book (without the racism and misogyny).
Somebody in Germany wants to open a quiche and karaoke bar, and the big question is: how do we crowdfund so you can quit your job and do this?
Fixing and restoring pinball machines.
—Director of strategy, USA
Gardening and/or fixing up a house. Maybe I’d get into a trade like tiling or landscape design. Some days I dream about working in a plant nursery.
—Senior content designer, USA
I’d become a master cicerone and open a brewery.
—Content designer, USA
Teaching. Or running a coffee shop, the really moody kind with ambient lighting and New York-style jazz in the background that’s perfect for whiling away a rainy day.
—Senior content designer, UK
Running a farm to adopt animals in need and an organic grocery store. Oh and playing hella music as a trained pianist and drummer.
—Lead content strategist, USA
Doing deathcare design research.
—Content and localization lead, Portugal
Folks really care about the community.
In addition to the wildlife rehabs and animal rescues in Content Town, respondents mentioned volunteer work, teaching, working for social justice causes, or using their content skills for social good.
I’d love to teach digital and media literacy to young people. I think it should be a huge focus in schools now.
—Content strategist, Ireland
I’ve been in recovery for six years and started an online platform for people in recovery/hoping to be in recovery. It has grown to about 17,000 people but I barely have time for it anymore. I wish I could run it full time and make it an even better space for connection, community, and recovery-related humor. :)
—Senior copywriter, USA
Probably doing volunteer work in my community and petting my dogs/cat all day.
—Content strategy director, USA
Maybe volunteering / working in some political capacity. I volunteered on a campaign last year which was immensely satisfying.
—Senior content designer, Australia
Teaching. I truly loved teaching languages but the lack of funding/resources in schools and the abysmal pay made me branch out. I often miss it and do some free tutoring sessions at my old school whenever I get a chance.
—Head of content, UK
UX content folks love the work, but maybe not the industry.
The question was open—you could assume you had zero money worries—and yet a few people who responded wouldn’t change a thing about their work. But most people who wanted to stay in content said they’d like to work less, or do more mission-driven work.
I’d be a content designer. I am home in terms of my profession.
—Senior content designer, UK
I really like mentoring, helping people communicate better (with each other, not just with “users”), and organizing processes—so something along those lines probably.
—Senior content designer, USA
I would still be in content/UX, but I would probably work three days a week so I’d have more time to spend on reading, sewing and relationships.
—Senior UX writer, Australia
I love what I do, so I’d probably perform a similar role, but for a non-profit or organization tackling real-world problems.
—Content designer, USA
Work is a means to an end.
Without a need for money, there was a notable segment (more than 10%) who simply would leave the labor market—and that doesn’t include those who said they would go back to school, some of them forever (hello, perpetual students).
Some would be stay-at-home parents, while others would retire, travel, or become full-time pet snugglers.
Racing cars, DJing, and rescuing cats.
—Senior content designer, USA
Crosswords.
—Head of content, Norway
Stay-at-home parent for my two kids.
—Content designer, USA
Is stay-at-home daughter an acceptable response??? [Team note: where do we sign up?]
—Staff UX writer, UK
Raising goats and bees on my decommissioned pot farm with my family.
—UX writer, USA
One wildcard response didn’t fit any of the above themes, but deserves a space of its own.
Own a resort in Bali with a freedive school and produce movies and write books on the side. Plus a small side hustle with mermaid performers to keep the magic alive.
—Senior UX writer, Sweden
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