Hi! I am Michael A. Degtyarev. I am a senior UX designer and mentor based in Saskatoon, Canada Austin, Texas. I am also a father, amateur musician, photographer, and writer.
As many other established UX designers I don’t have a formal education in design. My major is computational linguistics. I transitioned into design after working as an interpreter and a QA specialist back in 2005. I was 25. Looking back I can say that I had a successful freelance and now corporate career.
I have over 15 years of experience designing and developing User Interfaces for the Web and mobile. I worked on dozens of projects ranging from community websites to tech blogs to SaaS apps that are 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 am a senior UX designer at Yardi, leading provider of innovative software solutions and services for all types and sizes of real estate companies, and one of the Forbes Cloud 100 companies.
As a hobby I write about UX Design. Many of my articles are for those who would like to start a career in UX design and become a UX designer, or grow design skills. Most of my writing is published at UX Portfolio, and some made it to UX Collective and Harvard Business Review.
I run a free newsletter on UX Design. I also collect various learning resources like books, blogs, online courses, YouTube channels, and podcasts.
My mission is to help professionals and companies grow and design delightful products. Let me know how I can help.
More facts about me
- I dreamed of becoming a computer programmer, but became a linguist instead
- I graduated from high-school twice
- I love to read books, play tennis and guitar