At the risk of only posting other people’s buttons, here’s one for A List Apart’s Web Design Survey.

ALA make the valid point that little is known about web designers and developers as a group. Much is assumed, we’re all nerdy young white males, of course! I for one look forward to the results.

Completing the survey gave me a chance to reflect on my 6-7 year career so far and consider it in context. I’ve been very lucky, web design has been good to me in many ways. It’s allowed me to be flexible about where I work, when and with whom. I’m constantly improving my skillset (I ticked the box for every competency in the survey). I’ve been able to play businessman in start-ups, entertaining my own ideas. Although that has sometimes been high-stress and low-income, I’ve managed to find real jobs to fall back on when the going has got too tough.

Right now I’m involved in not one but two exciting start-ups (MyMart, moblogUK) and although it’s a lot of work, they’re both deeply interesting ventures. Reading TechCrunch and other sites the temptation to feel like an also-ran can be a bit strong sometimes. It’s hard to watch lots of great services created by people younger than me spin-out for huge money. That’s like holding yourself up against Hollywood stars or great statesmen and feeling like a failure. I need to remind myself not to do it and concentrate on just making great web applications.

P.S. My most recent act in this quest was to redesign the moblogUK home page and create a new theme for the site. We’ve launched some great new features (including one that is genuine bonafide innovative - busyness).