Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

State of Web Development 2010 Results

Looking for just the results to each of the questions in this year’s State of Web Development survey You’ve come to the right place.
Or, if you’re looking for the full details, head over to our in-depth report.

Table of Contents

State of Web Design overview

Part 1: Respondents

Question 1: In which country do you live?

Country Count
Argentina 4
Australia 318
Austria 6
Azerbaijan 1
Belarus 2
Belgium 30
Bosnia and Herzgovena 1
Brasil 7
Bulgaria 2
Canada 91
China 3
Columbia 1
Costa Rica 1
Croatia 5
Czech Republic 4
Denmark 2
El Salvador 1
UK 77
Estonia 2
Finland 5
France 21
Germany 14
Greece 11
Hong Kong 2
Hungary 3
Iceland 1
India 8
Indonesia 2
Ireland 3
Israel 3
Italy 9
Japan 6
Latvia 1
Lebanon 2
Luxembourg 3
Malaysia 1
Mexico 1
Myanmar 1
Netherlands 15
New Zealand 20
Nigeria 1
Norway 9
Pakistan 1
Peru 1
Philipines 7
Poland 7
Portugal 17
Romania 6
Russia 6
Saudi Arabia 2
Serbia 3
Singapore 4
Slovakia 2
Slovenia 5
South Africa 4
South Korea 1
Spain 12
Sweden 14
Switzerland 5
Taiwan 2
Thailand 1
Tunisia 1
Turkey 4
USA 542
Ukraine 1
Venezuela 3

Question 2: How would you describe yourself?

Description Count
Designer 518
Developer 790
Other 199

Question 3: What size organization do you work for?

2010
Sector Count %
Student 44 3.14%
Hobbyist 24 1.71%
Freelancer 299 21.33%
Small Organization (up to 10) 298 21.26%
Medium Organization (up to 50) 258 18.4%
Large Organization (up to 500) 237 16.9%
Huge Organization (more than 500) 228 16.26%
Other 7 0.5%
2008
Sector Count %
Student 68 5.51%
Hobbyist 21 1.70%
Freelancer 225 18.23%
Small Company (up to 10) 235 19.04%
Medium Company (up to 50) 244 19.77%
Large Company (up to 500) 184 14.91%
Huge Company (more than 500) 231 18.72%
Other 18 1.46%

Question 4: Which sector do you work in?

2010
Sector Count %
Web Focussed Agency 512 36.52
Digital Design Agency 126 8.99%
Construction & Property 6 0.43%
Consumer Goods 13 0.93%
Banking & Finance 34 2.43%
Health 21 1.5%
Industrials 0 0%
Leisure 8 0.57%
Media 80 5.71%
Natural Resources 1 0.07%
Retail 18 1.28%
Technology 167 11.91%
Telecoms 18 1.28%
Transport 6 0.43%
Utilities 1 0.07%
Engineering 11 0.78%
Local Government 17 1.21%
State/Regional Government 29 2.07%
National Government 32 2.28%
Charity/Not for Profit 52 3.71%
Education 108 7.7%
Other 132 9.42%
2008
Sector Count %
Design Agency 319 25.85%
Banking & Finance 33 2.67%
Construction & Property 2 0.16%
Consumer Goods 11 0.89%
Engineering 16 1.30%
Health 22 1.78%
Industrials 2 0.16%
Leisure 9 0.73%
Media 129 10.45%
Natural Resources 2 0.16%
Retail 14 1.13%
Technology 231 18.72%
Telecoms 15 1.22%
Transport 6 0.49%
Utilities 3 0.24%
Local Government 16 1.30%
State/Regional Government 29 2.35%
National Government 30 2.43%
Charity/Not for Profit 42 3.40%
Education 125 10.13%
Other 169 13.70%

Part 2: OS and Browsers

Question 5: Which OS do you primarily use for day to day work?

2010
OS Count %
Windows XP 343 24.47%
Windows Vista 87 6.21%
Windows 7 145 10.34%
Mac OS X 10.4 20 1.43%
Mac OS X 10.5 184 13.12%
Mac OS X 10.6 507 36.16%
Linux 59 4.21%
Unix 0 0%
Other 4 0.29%
2008
OS (2008) Count %
Windows XP 465 37.68%
Windows Vista 113 9.16%
Mac OS X 10.4 65 5.27%
Mac OS X 10.5 512 41.49%
Linux 56 4.54%
Unix 1 0.08%
Other 7 0.57%

Question 6: Which browser do you primarily use for day to day browsing?

2010
Browser (2010) Count %
IE6 0 0%
IE7 11 0.78%
IE8 13 0.93%
Firefox 3.5 229 16.33%
Firefox 3.6 530 37.8%
Safari 3 2 0.14%
Safari 4 284 20.26%
Google Chrome 241 17.19%
Opera 24 1.71%
Other 10 0.71%
2008
Browser(2008) Count %
IE6 15 1.22%
IE7 40 3.24%
IE8 3 0.24%
Firefox 2 44 3.57%
Firefox 3 741 60.05%
Safari 2 1 0.08%
Safari 3 258 20.91%
Google Chrome 52 4.21%
Opera 38 3.08%
Other 27 2.19%

Question 7: What features are important in your decision?

2010
Feature not important important very important
Built in Developer Tools 30.16% 23.62% 42.73%
Plug in Developer Tools 30.4% 14.3% 51.84%
Performance 10.06% 12.08% 74.41%
stability 9.98% 11.71% 74.84%
Standards Support 9.01% 6.1% 81.41%
CSS3 Support 15.4% 19.61% 61.51%
HTML5 Support 17.45% 23.24% 55.83%
User Experience Design 14.59% 20.61% 61.32%
Familiarity 18.57% 20.3% 57.67%

Mobile Browser Summary

2010
Browser (2010) Count %
Mobile Safari 413 29%
Android 52 3.8%
Pre 3 .2%
Blackberry 15 1.1%
Opera mini 36 2.6%
Opera mobile 20 1.43%
Nokia 11 .8%
2008
Browser (2008) Count %
Mobile Safari 200 16%
Blackberry 9 .75%
Opera mini 42 3.4%
Opera mobile 20 1.6%
Nokia 20 1.6%

Question 8: Which browsers do you test your web sites with?

2010
Browser Count %
IE5 18 1.28%
IE6 837 59.7%
IE7 1158 82.6%
IE8 1171 83.52%
Firefox 2 157 11.2%
Firefox 3 522 37.23%
Firefox 3.5 859 61.27%
Firefox 3.6 973 69.4%
Safari 2 36 2.57%
Safari 3 358 25.53%
Safari 4 1124 80.17%
Mobile Safari 533 38.02%
Google Chrome 1078 76.89%
Opera 660 47.08%
Opera Mobile 80 5.71%
2008
Browser Count %
IE5 53 4.29%
IE6 968 78.44%
IE7 1104 89.47%
IE8 364 29.50%
Firefox 2 604 48.95%
Firefox 3 1135 91.98%
Opera 616 49.92%
Opera Mobile 61 4.94%
Safari 2 237 19.21%
Safari 3 992 80.39%
Mobile Safari 259 20.99%
Google Chrome 488 39.55%

Part 3: Markup

Question 9: Which type of markup do you use?

2010
Markup Count %
Exclusively HTML 138 9.84%
Exclusively XHTML 476 33.95%
Mostly HTML, sometimes XHTML 230 16.41%
Mostly XHTML, sometimes HTML 451 32.17%
XML 5 0.36%
Other 19 1.36%
2008
Markup Count %
Exclusively HTML 73 5.92%
Exclusively XHTML 523 42.38%
Mostly HTML, sometimes XHTML 196 15.88%
Mostly XHTML, sometimes HTML 367 29.74%
XML 9 0.73%
Other 10 0.81%

Question 10: How often do you validate your markup?

2010
Frequency Count %
Always 457 32.6%
Frequently 467 33.31%
Sometimes 324 23.11%
Never 63 4.49%
2008
Frequency Count %
Always 454 36.79%
Frequently 401 32.50%
Sometimes 278 22.53%
Never 41 3.32%

Question 11: Which doctype do you typically declare for your pages?

2010
Doctype Count %
none 25 1.78%
HTML 4.01 strict 117 8.35%
HTML 4.01 transitional 162 11.55%
HTML 4.01 frameset 1 0.07%
XHTML 1.01 strict 353 25.18%
XHTML 1.01 transitional 396 28.25%
XHTML 1.01 frameset 5 0.36%
XHTML 1.1 56 3.99%
HTML 5 177 12.62%
Other 11 0.78%
2008
Doctype Count %
none 21 1.70%
HTML 4.01 strict 106 8.59%
HTML 4.01 transitional 142 11.51%
HTML 4.01 frameset 3 0.24%
XHTML 1.01 strict 384 31.12%
XHTML 1.01 transitional 425 34.44%
XHTML 1.01 frameset 1 0.08%
XHTML 1.1 53 4.29%
HTML 5 16 1.30%
Other 10 0.81%

Question 12: Do you use tables for layout?

2010
Answer Count %
Never, on pain of death 844 60.2%
Yes, often they’re much easier for layout than CSS 36 2.57%
Only if I really really have to 435 31.03%
2008
Answer Count %
No 1046 84.76%
Yes 127 10.29%
No answer 16 1.30%

Question 13: If you use any of the following HTML tags or properties, please mark them

2010
Feature Count %
None 481 34.31%
font 71 5.06%
b 213 15.19%
i 171 12.2%
border 165 11.77%
width 288 20.54%
u 56 3.99%
height 245 17.48%
cellspacing 259 18.47%
cellpadding 219 15.62%
center 112 7.99%
2008
Feature Count %
None 378 30.63%
font 70 5.67%
b 218 17.67%
i 187 15.15%
border 146 11.83%
width 284 23.01%
u 79 6.40%
height 238 19.29%
cellspacing 243 19.69%
cellpadding 209 16.94%
center 122 9.89%

Question 14: Do you use microformats in your markup?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 484 34.52%
No 602 42.94%
What are microformats? 224 15.98%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 429 34.76%
No 512 41.49%
What are microformats? 231 18.72%

Question 15: Do you use RDFa in your markup?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 79 5.63%
No 802 57.2%
What’s RDFa? 432 30.81%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 42 3.40%
No 586 47.49%
What’s RDFa? 544 44.08%

Question 16: Do you use HTML5 markup (for example section, header, nav elements)

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 103 7.35%
Sometimes 294 20.97%
Never 914 65.19%

Question 17: If so, what features of HTML5 do you use?

Respondents replied …

Question 18: Do you use WAI-ARIA (for example the role attribute) in your markup

2010
Answer Count %
Always 9 0.64%
sometimes 130 9.27%
never 1170 83.45%

Question 19: Is so, what features of ARIA do you use?

role with 70% of those who responded always or somtimes was the only significant response.

Part 3: Presentation

Question 20: Which of the following best describes your web design philosophy

2010
Answer Count %
Pages should look as near to identical as possible across browsers 197 14.05%
Consistency across browsers is important, but I use features supported in newer browsers provided they don’t cause problems for older browsers 848 60.49%
Pages might look substantially different in different browsers, but provided they look acceptable in all browsers, consistency is of no great concern 220 15.69%
2008
Answer Count %
Pages should look as near to identical as possible across browsers 304 24.64%
Consistency across browsers is important, but I use features supported in newer browsers provided they don’t cause problems for older browsers 708 57.37%
Pages might look substantially different in different browsers, but provided they look acceptable in all browsers, consistency is of no great concern 117 9.48%

Question 21: Which of the following best describes your approach to developing for multiple browsers?

2010
Answer Count %
I only develop for IE 3 0.21%
I develop for IE first, and then make sure my pages work in other major browsers 39 2.78%
I develop to W3C standards, and then work around IE 1072 76.46%
I develop to W3C standards and expect browsers to support these 150 10.7%
2008
Answer Count %
I only develop for IE 3 0.24%
I develop for IE first, and then make sure my pages work in other major browsers 62 5.02%
I develop to W3C standards, and then work around IE 946 76.66%
I develop to W3C standards and expect browsers to support these 116 9.40%

Question 22: Do you typically use quirks mode when designing sites?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 100 7.13%
No 1022 72.9%
What’s quirks mode? 136 9.7%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 116 9.40%
No 835 67.67%
What’s quirks mode? 168 13.61%

Question 23: Which of the following do you use CSS for?

2010
Answer Count %
Fonts and text style 1246 88.87%
Page layout 1252 89.3%
Print appearance 966 68.9%
2008
Answer Count %
Controlling fonts and text style 1112 90.11%
Controlling page layout 1115 90.36%
Controlling print appearance 851 68.96%

Question 24: Which of these types of selector do you regularly use?

2010
Answer Count %
HTML element selectors such as p {} 1192 85.02%
Class selectors such as p.classname {} 1194 85.16%
ID selectors such as p#idname {} 1140 81.31%
Descendent selectors such as p a {} 1125 80.24%
Child selectors such as p > a {} 516 36.8%
attribute selectors such as a[href] 526 37.52%
structural selectors such as p:last-child 525 37.45%
2008
Answer Count %
HTML element selectors such as p {} 1027 83.23%
Class selectors such as p.classname {} 1057 85.66%
ID selectors such as p#idname {} 999 80.96%
Descendent selectors such as p a {} 961 77.88%
Child selectors such as p > a {} 337 27.31%

Question 25: Do you use any CSS3 or experimental CSS properties, such as CSS transitions, transforms, animations, shadows?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 636 45.36%
No 616 43.94%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 274 22.20%
No 843 68.31%

Question 26: If so which?

2010
Answer Count
text-shadow 166
box-shadow 158
border-radius 305
gradient 24
multi-column 4
rgba 74
opacity 37
transitions 86
transforms 50
animation 13

Question 27: Do you use linked fonts with the @font-face statement?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 320 22.82%
No 932 66.48%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 51 4.13%
No 1060 85.90%

Question 28: Which type of fonts do you link to?

2010
Type Count %
Truetype 237 16.9%
EOT 193 13.77%
WOFF 99 7.06%
OpenType 248 17.69%
2008
Type Count %
Truetype 50 4.05%
EOT 7 0.57%

Question 29: Do you use SVG?

2010
Answer Count %
No 1057 75.39%
A little 180 12.84%
Extensively 13 0.93%
2008
Answer Count %
No 923 74.80%
A little 172 13.94%
Extensively 15 1.22%

Question 30: Which, if any libraries do you use for cross browser SVG support?

2010
Answer Count %
Raphael 74 5.28%
SVG Web 37 2.64%
Other 50 3.57%

Question 31: Do you use the Canvas element?

2010
Answer Count %
No 1045 74.54%
A little 193 13.77%
Extensively 20 1.43%
2008
Answer Count %
No 989 80.15%
A little 111 9.00%
Extensively 9 0.73%

Question 32: Do you optimize your sites for devices other than laptops/PCs?

2010
Answer Count %
No 803 57.28%
Yes 458 32.67%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 310 25.12%
No 813 65.88%

Question 33: If “Yes”, what other devices do you optimize your websites for?

2010
Device Count %
iphone/mobile safari 234 51%
blackberry 23 5%
android 47 10%
opera mobile 6 1.3%
Palm Pre 4 1.3%
wii 3 .7%
2008

1.6%

Device Count %
iphone/mobile safari 136 44%
blackberry 13 4%
android 3 1%
opera mobile 5
wii 5 1.6%

Question 34: If you optimize sites for different devices, what technique or techniques do you use?

2010
Client Side browser sniffing 204 14.55%
Server Side browser sniffing 213 15.19%
Media Queries 191 13.62%

Part 4: Scripting

Question 35: Do you use JavaScript in your development?

2010
Answer Count %
No 56 3.99%
For visual effects 1077 76.82%
For form validation 926 66.05%
For complex application interaction 683 48.72%
For Ajax communication with the server 818 58.35%
2008
Answer Count %
No 65 5.27%
For visual effects 902 73.10%
For form validation 754 61.10%
For complex application interaction 520 42.14%
For Ajax communication with the server 659 53.40%

Question 36: Do you separate your JavaScript from your markup (“unobtrusive JavaScript”)?

2010
Answer Count %
Always 614 43.79%
Usually 529 37.73%
No 56 3.99%
2008
Answer Count %
Always 477 38.65%
Usually 518 41.98%
No 47 3.81%

Question 37: Do you strictly adhere to the W3C DOM, and avoid browser specific extensions?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 454 32.38%
As much as possible 664 47.36%
No 81 5.78%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 375 30.39%
As much as possible 613 49.68%
No 53 4.29%

Question 38: Which JavaScript libraries and frameworks do you use?

2010
Framework Count %
None 55 3.92%
Backbase 1 0.07%
Dojo 41 2.92%
Ext 39 2.78%
GWT 13 0.93%
JQuery 1091 77.82%
Mootools 196 13.98%
Prototype 249 17.76%
qooxdoo 2 0.14%
script.aculo.us 187 13.34%
YUI 161 11.48%
Other 43 3.07%
2008
Framework Count %
None 119 9.64%
Backbase 2 0.16%
Dojo 36 2.92%
Ext 33 2.67%
GWT 16 1.30%
JQuery 775 62.80%
Mootools 235 19.04%
Prototype 287 23.26%
qooxdoo 1 0.08%
script.aculo.us 224 18.15%
YUI 133 10.78%
Other 50 4.05%

Only one each for Cappucino and Sproutcore

Question 39: Do you use HTML5 APIs (geolocation, client side storage, webworkers etc)?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 128 9.13%
No 1121 79.96%

Question 40: If so, which APIs do you use

2010
API Count
geolocation 57
client side storage 40
web workers 4
drag and drop 3
file api 2
websockets 2

Part 5: Rich Media

Question 41: Do you incorporate media into your sites other than HTML, CSS, Javascript and images (for example, Audio, Video, Flash or Silverlight)?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes 946 67.48%
No 315 22.47%
2008
Answer Count %
Yes 774 62.72%
No 339 27.47%

Question 42: Which kinds of content do you use?

2010
Type Count %
Flash 829 59.13%
Silverlight 51 3.64%
Quicktime 231 16.48%
Real 10 0.71%
H.264 188 13.41%
Ogg Theora/Vorbis 44 3.14%
MP3 330 23.54%
Windows Media 66 4.71%
AVI 53 3.78%
Embedded Vimeo Content 377 26.89%
Embedded YouTube Content 591 42.15%
Other 46 3.28%
2008
Answer Count %
Flash 757 61.35%
Silverlight 26 2.11%
Quicktime 242 19.61%
Real 25 2.03%
Others 22 1.78%

Question 43: What do you use this kind of content for?

2010
Type Count %
Audio 554 39.51%
Video 900 64.19%
Embedded games and other interactive applications 248 17.69%
Whole sites 59 4.21%
2008
Answer Count %
Audio 483 39.14%
Video 729 59.08%
Embedded games and other interactive applications 272 22.04%
Whole sites 83 6.73%

Question 44: How do you include this kind of content in your sites?

2010
Method Count %
Primarily or always the object element 654 46.65%
Primarily or always the embed element 451 32.17%
HTML5 audio/video element (with fallbacks where necessary) 126 8.99%

Part 6: The Server side

Question 45: What type of hardware do your sites run on?

2010
Answer Count %
Dedicated servers managed by you or your company 446 31.81%
Dedicated co-located servers 217 15.48%
Shared servers 452 32.24%
Don’t know 75 5.35%
Other 48 3.42%
2008
Answer Count %
Dedicated servers managed by you or your company 433 35.09%
Dedicated co-located servers 189 15.32%
Shared servers 368 29.82%
Don’t know 62 5.02%
Other 40 3.24%

Question 46: What server software is used to serve your sites?

2010
Answer Count %
Apache 979 69.83%
IIS 290 20.68%
GWS 7 0.5%
lighthttpd 48 3.42%
Nginx 54 3.5%
Other 103 7.35%
Don’t know 113 8.06%
2008
Answer Count %
Apache 849 68.80%
IIS 280 22.69%
GWS 5 0.41%
lighthttpd 68 5.51%
Don’t know 115 9.32%
Other 81 6.56%

Question 47: Which operating system(s) do your servers run?

2010
Answer Count %
Linux 881 62.84%
Unix 196 13.98%
Windows 352 25.11%
Mac OS X 61 4.35%
Don’t know 119 8.49%
Other 26 1.85%
2008
Answer Count %
Linux 725 58.75%
Unix 206 16.69%
Windows 343 27.80%
Mac OS X 69 5.59%
Don’t know 113 9.16%
Other 26 2.11%

Question 48: What database systems do you use?

2010
Answer Count %
none 40 2.85%
MySQL 987 70.4%
Microsoft SQL Server 284 20.26%
Oracle 95 6.78%
PostgreSQL 144 10.27%
Other 88 6.28%
2008
Answer Count %
none 42 3.40%
MySQL 869 70.42%
Microsoft SQL Server 271 21.96%
Oracle 113 9.16%
PostgreSQL 128 10.37%
Other 80 6.48%

Other databases mentioned CouchDB 9, Mongo 9, Cassandra 3.

Question 49: On the server which programming languages do you use?

2010
Answer Count %
ASP 98 6.99%
ASP.NET 226 16.12%
ColdFusion 68 4.85%
Java 158 11.27%
JavaScript (q47a5) 97 6.92%
Perl 102 7.28%
PHP 875 62.41%
Python 157 11.2%
Ruby 224 15.98%
None 44 3.14%
2008
Answer Count %
ASP 144 11.67%
ASP.NET 208 16.86%
ColdFusion 88 7.13%
Java 152 12.32%
JavaScript 680 55.11%
Perl 103 8.35%
PHP 778 63.05%
Python 187 15.15%
Ruby 178 14.42%
None 43 3.48%
Other 43 3.48%

Question 50: Which back-end frameworks do you use for development?

2010
Framework Count %
None 433 30.88%
CakePHP 56 3.99%
CherryPy 4 0.29%
Django 93 6.63%
Ext GWT 2 0.14%
Ruby on Rails 202 14.41%
Struts 27 1.93%
Zend framework 88 6.28%
node.js 17 1.21%
Developed internally 242 17.26%
Other 256 18.26%

Others mentioned included code igniter 82, sinatra 17, symfony 15.

2008
Answer Count %
None 367 29.74%
CakePHP 75 6.08%
CherryPy 3 0.24%
Django 133 10.78%
Ext GWT 4 0.32%
Ruby on Rails 164 13.29%
Struts 23 1.86%
Zend framework 79 6.40%
Developed internally 241 19.53%
Other 199 16.13%

Part 7: The Cloud

Question 51: Do you rely on “Cloud Computing” resources?

2010
Answer Count %
Yes (49c1) 312 22.25%
No (49c2) 922 65.76%

Question 52: If so, what do you use the cloud for?

2010
Answer Count %
Infrastructure as a service (e.g. Amazon EC2) 144 10.27%
Platform as a service (E.g. Google App Engine) 103 7.35%
Online storage (e.g. Amazon S3) 233 16.62%

Question 53: If so, what do you use the cloud for?

2010
Answer Count %
Infrastructure as a service (e.g. Amazon EC2) 144 10.27%
Platform as a service (E.g. Google App Engine) 103 7.35%
Online storage (e.g. Amazon S3) 233 16.62%

Question 54: What cloud services do you use?

2010
Answer Count %
Amazon EC2 94 6.7%
Amazon S3 190 13.55%
Google App Engine 80 5.71%
Windows Azure 7 0.5%
Joyent 8 0.57%
Bungee 1 0.07%
Other 75 5.35%

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Thoroughly enjoyed Web Directions — met some great people, heard some inspiring presenters and added a whole bunch of things to my to-do list.

Joel Roberts Web Developer