• When you chat with Mike about your site he won’t be jumping to tell you about design standards or what will look great. He’ll be listening. His empathy, ux chops, and fresh perspective helped me gain some clarity about our interface. Can’t wait to talk with Mike again.
    Blockspring
    Paul Katsen, Founder of Blockspring
  • Mike invests himself in constant learning to grow his skills and is always plugged into the latest technologies, trends and best practices. Mike’s specific feedback and recommendations made a huge impact on the overall quality, usability, and success of the Bluetrain.io platform.
    Bluetrain.io
    Steffan Berelowitz, CEO of Bluetrain.io
  • I brought my idea to Mike, and instead of receiving praise and adulation (most people’s response), Mike was calm, objective and insightful. He took a critical look at my website release plan, rearranged some elements, scrapped others and came up with a strategy that I feel much more comfortable with.
    John Hernandez
    John Hernandez, founder of a publishing startup
  • Mike was there all the way to guide me through the entire process on converting my 10+ years old website into a functional responsive website. The user interface feedback I received from Mike was great and useful! With his help and training, I am able to prepare and upload files to update my own website whenever I needed to!
    Wing Ngan, Ink Design Inc.
    Wing Ngan, designer at Ink Design Inc.
  • So appreciated Mike’s expertise and advice helping us to improve the user experience for ArtApp Boston+. He also connected us with an incredibly talented designer for our branding and more.
    ArtApp Boston+
    Liora Beer, co-founder/director of New Art Love

Free Product Advice

How It Works

It started out with me meeting up with friends and listening to them talk about their products or ideas. They were either wanting me to work with them or simply looking for an outsider’s point of view. I am straight forward and sometimes very blunt, so I never held back on giving my 2 cents. They found my feedback invaluable and I started to really enjoy giving product advice. Now I’d like to offer my advice for free, so more people can benefit from it.

I am offering free two-hour meetings, in which I will provide feedback and advice on your product or idea. Location of the meeting is currently limited to Boston. I am accepting 2 meetings per month.

Prerequisites

  • Your product or idea must be a good, honest one.
  • Your product or idea must be a website, web app or mobile app.
  • You must be able to meet in Boston.

Types of Advice

  • User experience design
  • User interface design
  • Product design
  • Product features
  • Product branding

Schedule a meeting
or @ me

Um, Who the Hell Is Mike Mai?

And what does he know

Let’s face it. I am a nobody. My advice may not mean much. But since you are on my site and you have read down to this point, you must be a lil' intrigued. I am a full-stack product designer (strategy + design + code), currently at Sonicbids, previously at Bluetrain Mobile. Since graduating from MassArt in '09, I’ve been designing and coding out websites and web apps, focusing heavily on user experience. I spend majority of my time solving problems. That’s what design is all about.

Continue to old site
or get inspired

Manual Focus Required

Select Photography Work

  • Sightseeing In Macau
    Travel
  • It’s Codzilla, RUN!!!
    Event
  • Curling Is Better When Drunk
    Event
  • Coming Soon
    China Black & White
    Travel
  • Work In Progress
    Fall Colors 2014
    Landscape
  • Work In Progress
    Magic Hour by The Charles
    Personal

Always Judge a Book

By Its Cover

While others might not consider taboo projects, I love to take on them. Working on these off-beat book covers really was hell of a fun time. The pay was really low but there was no limit on creative freedom. I got to be as bold (or ridiculous) as I wanted.

Best Interview Ever

Let’s Talk About Design

Whoa, you actually read to the end! As for your reward, I present you a funny little mock interview my friends at Bluetrain Mobile made. Mike Mai (played by Ryan Boye) answers a few questions about design tools and shares his thoughts on responsive web design.