Hi! I'm Michael A. Degtyarev, a senior UX designer and mentor based in Saskatoon, Canada Austin, Texas.
Like many established UX designers, I don't have a formal education in design. My major was computational linguistics. I got into design after working as an interpreter and a QA specialist, back in 2005. I was 25.
I've spent over 20 years designing and building user interfaces for the web and mobile. I've worked on dozens of projects, from community websites and blogs to SaaS apps used by tens of thousands of people worldwide. My own start-up was bought by one of the top CMS companies in Europe.
Currently, I'm a senior UX designer at Yardi, a leading provider of software for real estate companies of all types and sizes, and one of the Forbes Cloud 100 companies.
MAD/UX is my independent practice. I take on a few engagements at a time: product design, UX strategy, design systems, and mentoring.
I like helping people and companies design products that are a pleasure to use. Let me know how I can help.
I also write about UX design as a hobby. Many of my articles are for people who want to start a career in UX or grow their design skills. Most of my writing is published at UX Portfolio, and some of it has made it to UX Collective and Harvard Business Review.
I run a free newsletter on UX design, and I keep a list of learning resources: books, blogs, online courses, YouTube channels, and podcasts.