New analysis reveals crowdsourcing is creating a new breed of ‘anytime, anywhere’ workers
An analysis of just under 20,000 Australian design submissions to online crowdsourcing marketplace DesignCrowd.com.au has provided further insight into the work habits of the fast-growing freelance design community.
In particular, the analysis confirmed that many freelance designers are night owls, with one in every five projects being submitted late at night, between 10pm and 7am.
Moreover, the analysis revealed more than half of the projects (54%) are being submitted outside of regular work hours.
Says Chris McNamara, DesignCrowd chief operating officer: “Crowdsourcing has broken down the traditional work model, and created a new workforce of ‘anytime, anywhere workers’.
“Crowdsourcing marketplaces like DesignCrowd enable freelancers to overcome the traditional barriers of distance and time.
“Not only do freelance designers have the opportunity to work with some of the world’s biggest brands from the comfort of their own home, but they can fit the work around whatever schedule suits them.”
Designer Stuart Burns works at Perisher Ski Resort in NSW teaching kids to ski and snowboard, but finds the freedom throughout the week to work on a number of design projects.
Says Burns: “During the winter months for the last six years, I have worked as the Leading Hand for the Perisher Kids Snowsports department. But on the days that I don’t have to be up the mountain, I jump onto DesignCrowd to see what projects there might be waiting for me.
“A typical design day would be wake at 6am, 2.5km run, breakfast, shower, work until lunch and if I have nothing else to submit, I may go for a 8km hike as part of my Airforce training, or just relax and play Xbox for a while. I continue to work after lunch if I have a large project submission, usually until about 6pm, before weight training, dinner and off to bed around 10pm.”
McNamara said there was an abundance of jobs being posted every day for designers like Stuart to choose from.
Says McNamara: “The fact is, with every passing month, there are more and more businesses turning to crowdsourcing for all manner of jobs, with design being one of the leading categories.”
This month, DesignCrowd announced there had been over $10 million worth of projects posted to its marketplace since its 2008 launch.
Says McNamara: “Demand for our service has more than doubled over the last six months and continues to grow at a rapid rate.”
McNamara said a general boom in freelancing was being driven by the growing popularity of crowdsourcing, with the design community at the epicentre.
“For increasing amounts of workers the 9am to 5pm office job is a thing of the past.”
“More and more workers are turning to freelancing as a viable career path, safe in the knowledge that their next job is just a few mouse clicks away.
“But it’s not just the amount of work available that’s powering this shift. Marketplaces like DesignCrowd create an environment where personal success is not determined by who you know or where you live, but by the quality of your ideas.”
And McNamara says, nowhere is this more true than when it comes to design.
“There is little doubt that the growing popularity of crowdsourcing globally is directly responsible for the recent and rapid growth of the freelance design community.
“But it is also responsible for breaking down the traditional work model, making freelancing an exciting, flexible and viable career path for talented designers who want to choose when they work and who they work for.”
DesignCrowd’s analysis found:
- The peak time for projects submissions was in the late afternoon, with 7.7% of projects submitted between 3pm and 4pm. During this peak period, 1474 designs were submitted.
- There was a brief drop-off after the 3-4pm period, before the volumes increased again, hitting a secondary peak during the 9-10pm period, and maintaining solid levels until just after midnight.
- Remarkably, between 1am and 2am, there were 384 design submissions, amounting to 26% of the peak-time submissions.
- Between 4am and 5am, there was still 161 design submissions, amounting to 11% of the peak-time submissions.
4 Comments
Are the submissions all from Australia or are they coming frame overseas?
Are you guys serious? This is media journalism?
The inferences I draw from these “facts” are not that these “freelancers” are night owls or “choosing to work anytime, anywhere, but that they are doing cheap jobs on the side after hours, probably after their regular day job. And probably because their day job as a designer is undervalued and they’re not paid enough.
Or they’re hobbyists like this Ski-instructor-slash-“designer” who does cheap jobs when he’s not on a slope.
I’m tired of sites promoting cheap design, it de-values what we and what Art Directors do. I think you’ll find that making a living and taking care of a family on sites like designcrowd is practically impossible.
Interview a real design freelancer and get their opinion on these rubbish sites.
It’s the same with other sites like freelancer.com – el cheapo companies sourcing el cheapo ad work (design, writing etc) sending briefs that hardly make sense to outsource workers who can hardly read in countries that don’t pay. Not a recipe for quality work. Just another path to dumbing down the whole industry and inflicting on the general public lacklustre work that doesn’t get results. Thumbs down all ’round.
Really interesting, thanks!
I think that you would be really interested in some recent research that I have come across about crowds and citizen science.
It’s called “The Theory of Crowd Capital” and you can download it here if you’re interested: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2193115
Really powerful stuff!