Advent calendar delivers daily web design treats

UXmas is back for a fifth year running to bring festive cheer to the hearts of UX practitioners all around the world – starting, of course, tomorrow. Boasting some of the biggest names in the UX community, this digital advent calendar is a fun and informative way to count down to Christmas.

Set up in 2012, UXmas is a joint effort from the teams at online learning resource UX Mastery and Melbourne-based user experience design team Thirst Studios. Though it may not have nude artwork like Mr Bingo's scratch-off advent calendar, users can look forward to receiving a UX-related treat every single day as a new window is made available to open.

These treats include anything from an article or a video, to a sketch or something else all together. The team behind UXmas was keen to make sure there were some surprises in store, just like a real calendar.

“For the past month or two, the elves at UX Mastery and Thirst Studios have been working closely with the authors to package up another very special digital advent calendar for user experience designers," says UX Mastery co-founder Luke Chambers.

And this year's version of UXmas includes some slightly different content.

“We're experimenting with shorter content and different content formats, to highlight value, make things more concise and a lot more fun. It was also a bit kinder on the authors who do a stellar job putting this stuff together uniquely for the calendar,” says Chambers.

In the past, UXmas has featured prominent voices including Andy Budd, Indi Young, Susan Weinschenk, Eric Meyer, Elizabeth Churchill, Steve Portigal, Whitney Hess and many others.

“But we attribute UXmas' success to the breadth and quality of content from the curious and creative minds of all our authors – the emerging voices, UX engine rooms and friendly faces that make the user experience scene what it is,” Chambers adds.

“Seriously though, it’s really just a bit of fun and a nice way to give a little something back to the burgeoning UX community that has been so supportive to us," says Thirst Studios' experience design director Ben Tollady. "We’ve had a lot of positive feedback over the years so it certainly seems to be of value, and that makes us happy. It’s our little gift to the community at Christmas time.”

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