On Belonging—Help Us Build a Better Picture of Our Field

May 13, 2026

Cybelle Jones

SEGD launches its anonymous 2026 Salary and Employment Survey, open to all experience, wayfinding, and exhibition designers

This week, Membership May turns its focus to belonging. What it means to find your people, to feel seen in your professional community, and to help others find their footing in this uniquely multidisciplinary world we work in.

At SEGD, belonging isn’t just a feeling. It’s something we actively work to build—and that work starts with understanding who we are, how we work, and what we need. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of the anonymous 2026 SEGD Salary and Employment Survey. Everyone who completes the survey will receive a 26% discount code to apply toward new and renewing memberships.

Why This Survey Matters

Our fields of experience design, wayfinding, exhibition design, digital, and branded environments sit at a rare intersection of disciplines. That makes our professional landscape hard to map using anyone else’s data. Generic design industry surveys don’t reflect our realities. We need our own.

The insights gathered through this survey will be combined with a decade of data collected from the SEGD Job Bank to produce a comprehensive report for members, to be released in fall 2026. Findings will also be presented at the 2026 SEGD Annual Conference in Kansas City this October, giving our community a real, data-driven foundation for conversations about compensation, career paths, and the future of our profession.

Please Take the Survey and Share It

You do not need to be an SEGD member to participate. This survey is open to anyone working in our field, and that’s by design. The more respondents we have, the more accurate and useful the findings will be for everyone.

The survey is completely confidential. Your individual responses will never be shared. Only aggregated findings will appear in the final report.

If you know someone working in wayfinding, exhibition design, environmental graphics, or experience design, whether or not they’re an SEGD member, please pass this along. Every response helps us to illustrate the picture.

This Is How Belonging Is Built

Belonging isn’t just about showing up at events or joining an online community. It’s about having access to real knowledge, knowing that your compensation is fair, that your career trajectory makes sense, and that others share your experience in your field.

This survey is one of the ways SEGD works to be a true resource for practitioners at every level. When you take five minutes to fill it out, you’re contributing to something that will help your peers, inform hiring decisions, support early-career designers, and give our entire community a better footing.

We’re grateful to everyone who participates. And if you haven’t yet joined or renewed your SEGD membership, remember Membership May is still on, with 26% off new memberships using code WELCOME26, plus weekly prize drawings and a grand prize of a full-access 2027 SEGD Event Bundle.

Join or renew this week (May 9-15), and you’ll be entered into the raffle for a 2026 Xlab registration in New York on July 22-23.

This month is for you. Welcome in.