Digital transformation of work: Where do designers find meaning in online crowdwork platforms?

Over the past decade the world of work has been experiencing the digital transformation. Integrating the digital processes and tools into business models, digital transformation has led to the shift in the traditional business structures, hierarchies, relations, and the workplace. More recently, this transformation has accelerated since remote work is becoming the norm for many areas of business under the global pandemic. This research focuses on a professional group, designers, who have increasingly preferred to work on online crowdwork platforms as a digital work form in recent years. Drawing on in-depth interviews with design professionals, this research explores what constitutes meaningful work for the designers on crowdwork platforms. Regarding their experiences on the platforms, our analysis will discuss meaningful work for designers on online crowdwork platforms with respect to three issues, which are (1) autonomy, (2) competence, and (3) relatedness. In our analysis we will focus on how designers’ experiences has changed in these digital work settings compared to traditional design practices in physical environments.