What do you get the web designer who has everything for Christmas? Here are 10 excellent ideas.
After a hard year wrestling with website mockups and fretting over user experience design, the web designer in your life probably deserves a real treat this Christmas.
We've already assembled a list of excellent gifts that'll cost between £50 and £100, but if you really fancy pushing the boat out this year then you've come to the right place. Here we've found 10 brilliant gifts for web designers for over £100 – some of them for quite a bit more than that. Come on, the world's probably going to end next year, so why not max out the plastic while you still can?
The perfect standing desk for people who aren't sure if they want a standing desk
Standing desks are terribly popular these days and great for working without ruining your back, but sometimes you just want to sit down for a bit. In which case an Ergotron Workfit workstation is the perfect compromise; bolt it to a suitably sturdy desk and you can easily adjust it from standing to sitting mode, depending on your mood.
02. Gaggia Brerar coffee machine
This bean-to-cup will bring out the barista in you
A decent cup of coffee is always on the menu, and if you're a stickler for quality above all else then this swish coffee machine from Gaggia is an absolute must. It'll grind your beans for you, enabling you to experiment with your own blends, and dispense cup after cup of delicious hot espresso in whatever strength and length you like for as long as your heart can take it.
03. Apple Watch Series 2
The new Apple Watch is a much more attractive proposition than the original
The original Apple Watch never quite set the world alight, but the Series 2 is looking like a better bet and a great gift for anyone who, like many of us, could never quite summon the enthusiasm to buy the first model. With built-in GPS and water resistance to 50 meters, plus a brighter display and lots of other new features, it's still a little chunky but a lot more attractive.
04. BeoPlay H8
Enjoy tip-top sound at your desk or on the move with these B&O cans
No desk is complete without a decent set of headphones, and these cracking noise-cancelling B&O cans not only look and sound amazing, they're Bluetooth as well so you can enjoy your sounds without being tethered to a cable. Their lightweight fit makes them suitable for listening all day, safe in the knowledge that they'll still hold enough charge for the journey home.
05. FabricBike Air+
Available in all manner of colours, this lightweight fixie is a cracker
Are fixies still a thing? Regardless of whether they are or not, we think the FabricBike Air+ would make a wonderful gift for a cycling-made web designer. Weighing in at just 9kg, it comes with an aerodynamic aluminium frame and both riser and drop handlebars, and it's available in a range of eye-catching colours.
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06. Aeron Task chair
How much? It's a small price to pay for a non-knackered back
This Christmas, why not give the gift of getting to retirement age with a fully-functioning back? The Aeron Task chair's price might seem a little eye-watering, but you get what you pay for; in this case a carefully engineered chair that's built to support you in all the right places and promote good circulation and healthy posture. And to top it all, it looks so good that it's featured in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection.
Logitech's mechanical keyboard will amaze everyone with its RGB lighting
Yes, it's a gaming keyboard, but Logitech's G910 Orion Spectrum is suitable for more than just playing games. It's a sturdy and reliable mechanical model with low-impact, short-travel switches that are tested to over seven million key presses, and it features amazing per-key RGB lighting that you can customise however you like, whether you want to highlight useful shortcuts or let rip with dazzling rainbow effects.
08. Device Lab
Test on all the devices without having to put up with a cluttered desk
Testing: it can be the most painful part of a web build, but it has to be done, even now that it means testing not only on multiple browsers but multiple devices as well. Vanamco's Device Lab makes the process a little less painful; it's a handy stand for responsive and mobile app testing, enabling you to attach multiple devices and keep them organised and tidy on your desk.
09. Samsung T3 USB 3.1 1 TB External Solid State Drive
Back everything up at maximum speed on this hefty SSD
As irritating people are quick to tell you after the event, if it's not backed up then it's not important. Thankfully backing stuff up can be a lot less of a chore if you have a lightning-fast SSD to hand, and this Samsung external drive delivers: it can hold up to a terabyte of precious data, transferring everything at speeds of up to 450MB/s.
10. HTC Vive
The HTC Vive is the best gear for getting into this VR business
2016 was the year in which high quality virtual reality finally touched down, and if you're working on the web then you should have at least half an eye on what's happening in VR. You can be sure that before too long, clients are going to want VR experiences where before they just wanted an app, so you need to be ready; with the best-in-class HTC Vive you can get a head start on designing and building immersive virtual worlds.
Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.
