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2016 gift guide: UX designer edition

3 Min. ReadDesign and UX

We enjoyed last year’s UX designer gift guide so much that we’ve updated it with the newest shiniest gifts from our lists for 2016. This year, we’ve categorized our coveted gifts by how close of a friend your giftee is. Happy holidays and happy gifting!

An Acquaintance

Need to get a gift for the office secret santa exchange? Or a not-so-close designer bud? A nice notebook shows that you care, but won’t break the bank.

If the designer in your life was the first to order the jet black iPhone 7, you should definitely order them this winter’s “Black Ice” edition of Field Notes (~$13). It even comes with matching gift wrap!

For sketching and paper prototyping, our team is loving the dot grid notebooks from Leuchtturm1917, which typically range from $20 to $30 depending on size and color.

A Good Friend

Looking for a gift for a designer friend you’re willing to spend a little more on?

For the gadget geek, the InkCase for iPhone 7 looks pretty cool. It adds a second e-ink screen to the back of your phone for $99.

UX design is a hot industry and lot of people are beginners looking to learn, or even experienced folks who want to broaden their skillset. A great gift might be a UX training video library. The kind folks at User Interface Engineering (UIE) have created an “All You Can Learn” video library for UX designers and researchers ($23/month). A year long membership (about $249) would give your favorite UXer the opportunity to learn about everything from user research to content strategy to visual design from the experts in the field.

My Best Pal

Your best friend is a designer? Lucky you!

Your designer pal’s long days in a computer chair are likely starting to wear on them and affect their health. Why not invest in a sit-stand desk? We’ve heard good things about the Jarvis from ErgoDepot, $490+, depending on size and features. The Wirecutter has a roundup of other options for standing desks if you want to consider other sit-stand desk options.

Feeling generous? Give your BFF a new iPad pro ($499 to $1129) and Apple Pencil ($99). These tools are the latest and greatest in drawing and sketching with technology. A couple members of our design team are using this combo for sketching and sharing their sketches live with teammates.

My Organ Donor who Happens to be a Designer

Did a designer save your life in 2016? You owe them BIG.

Any technology or design geek would jump at the chance to attend a conference in 2017. Conference registration and travel isn’t cheap! Here’s the comprehensive list of conferences next year. Some of the online conferences are relatively inexpensive, but if you really want to wow your designer pal, send them to SXSW in March with a platinum badge ($1450 at time of writing) and a sweet AirBNB loft in Austin for the week!

Happy Holidays from the Web Chefs!

Hope this guide made your shopping list a little shorter and easier this year. If you have any items on your list that we should’ve included, leave us a comment below. Cheers!