twenty
twenty
four

year in review

Giving back

This year, I became an accessibility design mentor on ADPList and I continued to share my expertise on the web-a11y Slack workspace. At Code and Theory—the agency I work at, I started training some of my coworkers to become web accessibility experts.

Making brands more accessible

I worked on improving the accessibility of many brands’ digital presence. Ensuring their products are usuable for users of assistive technologies. I performed audits, wrote annotations, built design systems, and even contributed many lines of front-end code.

  • CHS cenex.com
  • e.l.f. elfbeauty.com
  • ETS ets.org
  • Mars kinship.com
  • MSFT Surface Product Pages
  • NFL nfl.com
  • Scout App by Sutter Health
  • STrib startribune.com
  • TRP T.Rowe Price Design System

T.O.E.F.L.: Creating Leaders for 60 Years

20 years ago I took and passed the TOEFL test—an ETS product—in order to enter college. 20 years later, ETS became one of my clients. This came full circle for me. I helped launching their brand refresh this year with a new website powered by an accessible design system. During our engagement, they learned that I was a TOEFL test taker and decided to feature me as one of the leaders on their 60-year campaign.

A mobile phone displaying the TOEFL Creating Leaders for 60 Years website. A section of the websites shows the following information: United States, Mike Mai. Associate Director of Experience Design (Accessibility and Design Systems), Code and Theory - a creative and technology agency. Expertise: Advertising.
The TOEFL Creating Leaders for 60 Years program marks the TOEFL Program’s 60 years of service and highlights individuals from around the world who have taken the TOEFL test and are making a distinct impact in their respective industry or field of specialty.

Writing

Over at my blog, I added 2 more posts. Both got shared a decent amount on Mastodon by other CSS experts. I also made 2 one-shots. CMD + X is where I post infrequent short ramblings and The Happy Page is a collection of nice things people have said about me.

Branding for a friend

My buddy in China is opening up a new business called InnoMatix NM. It is a full-range coating manufacturer focused on using sustainable materials. It has been a hot minute since I did any branding work but I accepted the challenge. I had a lot of fun drawing the Chinese logomark out of English alphabets and diving back into the realm of Pantone colors.

InnoMatix NM logo shown in black and white. The front and back designs of InnoMatix NM business cards featuring the logo and slogan in both English and Chinese.

Advent of typography

I made another advent calendar this year. It is called 12 Days of Typesetting. For 12 days leading up to Christmas, I designed a word per day using a particular font. Any typography clichés and tricks you could think of, I probably used them. The calendar brought joy to me and others.

12 days of typesetting title lockup. Some letters are modified to have a part stretched to the edges. The 12 designs shown in red and white. The words are: merry, luminous, affectionate, welcoming, togetherness, grateful, delightful, jolly, truffles, festive, joyful, and noice. Fonts in use: roc grotesk, big caslon, futura, montserrat alternates blackest, krul, condor comp, didot, playfair display im fell french canon, alfarn 2, and marion. Colors in use: red, maroon, yellow, and green Happy holidays! The 12 designs shown in various color schemes.

Delightful!

—Andrew Hedges

Looking for your posts has become a LinkedIn highlight!

—David Worthley

If you could also show your process of creating this that would be really helpful for the junior designers. Loving the series so far!

—Bhavna Idnani

That was my 2024

I accomplished a lot this year and I am feeling very satisfied. Looking forward to another productive year! Hopefully it doesn’t take me another 10 years to write up another Year In Review, hehe.