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dave tianxiang cai
dave cai

Product Designer

|

B2C + B2B

Designing at trofimo

hi.

i’m dave

hi.

i’m dave

Tesla
Sony
tms
Lime

FEATURED WORK

FEATURED WORK

FEATURED WORK

Case studies

Case studies

Case studies

Phones, storefronts, and living rooms

Phones, storefronts, and living rooms

Phones, storefronts, and living rooms

Dynery by Trofimo

From a great find
to a shared table.

Live B2C + B2B

350+

Components
& states

3,000+

Users

I led Dynery from social discovery to group dining and payments—connecting the experience from first recommendation to final receipt.

Dynery social feed with a food recommendation
Dynery personalized menu with Newsreader title and current order actions
Dynery shared-dish selection with diners and bill allocation
Social · Orders · Shared dishes
Dynery by Trofimo

From a great find
to a shared table.

Live B2C + B2B

350+

Components
& states

3,000+

Users

I led Dynery from social discovery to group dining and payments—connecting the experience from first recommendation to final receipt.

Dynery social feed with a food recommendation
Dynery personalized menu with Newsreader title and current order actions
Dynery shared-dish selection with diners and bill allocation
Social · Orders · Shared dishes
Dynery by Trofimo

DyneryPay: Role-based bill splitting.

V1 Shipped → V2 Design delivered

Six weeks to launch. One live incident exposed the missing state model behind a multi-party checkout. Iterated Design with AI.

Dynery design-system case: active vs disabled proof board
Dynery by Trofimo

Refactoring a live design system with AI.

Dynery · Design System · 2026

Three eras of decisions, one owned token system and a Light version the whole team now runs.

SUPPORTING WORK

Selected projects

Selected projects

Selected projects

MOBILE + SPATIAL + IN-PERSON

MOBILE + SPATIAL + IN-PERSON

03 PROJECTS / 01 COLUMN

Dynery seeded persona feed and dining-preferences onboarding shown on two iPhones

Onboarding: Good design. Wrong order.

Onboarding: Good design. Wrong order.

A frictionless flow still failed to activate new users. I rebuilt it again by changing when Dynery asked for investment.

A frictionless flow still failed to activate new users. I rebuilt it again by changing when Dynery asked for investment.

Dynery APP

Onboarding

Activation

SonySphere immersive room projection with companion-app countdown on an iPhone

SonySphere

SonySphere

An AR + IoT system that turns a living room into a concert, designed spatially, no headsets with the phone only as the remote.

An AR + IoT system that turns a living room into a concert, designed spatially, no headsets with the phone only as the remote.

Sony

AR + IoT

Spatial Experience

McDonald’s Squad Up packaging, kiosk ordering loop, and mobile collect-and-trade interactions
A McDonald’s self-order kiosk running the SquadUp game

McDonald’s Squad Up

McDonald’s Squad Up

A Gen-Z targeting campaign across kiosk, mobile gamification, retail, engagement, and packaging.

A Gen-Z targeting campaign across kiosk, mobile gamification, retail, engagement, and packaging.

tms × McDonald’s

Kiosk + Mobile

Gamification

Design for Kids

Brand Design

AI / PROTOTYPING

AI / PROTOTYPING

AI / PROTOTYPING

One-click AI slop.

One-click AI slop.

One-click AI slop.

How I work with AI

How I work with AI

How I work with AI

AI writes a lot of my first drafts and code. The constraints, the trade-offs, the testing and what ships stay with me.

Working Overtime: a live AI-directed relay race command center shown on desktop and phone at a night checkpoint
Working Overtime desktop shift board with the 24-hour runner timeline
Working Overtime mobile shift board showing four relay windows

AI-product BUILD · multi-user collab TOOL • passion project

Working Overtime: a 24-⁠hour relay scheduling tool

I directed AI to build a live race-day command center for ten runners, turning contradictory preferences into a schedule the team could actually trust.

Working Overtime: a live AI-directed relay race command center shown on desktop and phone at a night checkpoint
Working Overtime desktop shift board with the 24-hour runner timeline
Working Overtime mobile shift board showing four relay windows

AI-product BUILD · multi-user collab TOOL • passion project

Working Overtime: a 24-⁠hour relay scheduling tool

I directed AI to build a live race-day command center for ten runners, turning contradictory preferences into a schedule the team could actually trust.

Working Overtime: a live AI-directed relay race command center shown on desktop and phone at a night checkpoint
Working Overtime desktop shift board with the 24-hour runner timeline
Working Overtime mobile shift board showing four relay windows

AI-product BUILD · multi-user collab TOOL • passion project

Working Overtime: a 24-⁠hour relay scheduling tool

I directed AI to build a live race-day command center for ten runners, turning contradictory preferences into a schedule the team could actually trust.

Also with AI: the Dynery design-system refactor, 350+ components on one token system →

BEYOND THE SCREEN

BEYOND THE SCREEN

BEYOND THE SCREEN

Human-centered
experience exploration

Human-centered
experience exploration

Human-centered
experience exploration

Hardware, wearables & human factors — the work that doesn’t live on a screen
Hardware, wearables & human factors — the work that doesn’t live on a screen
Hardware, wearables & human factors — the work that doesn’t live on a screen
Lime shared e-bikes and scooters lined up side by side
Lime

Micro-mobility vehicles & apps usability study

Micro-mobility vehicles & apps usability study

Micro-mobility vehicles & apps usability study

Field study across the vehicle’s physical controls and its companion app: two interfaces the rider uses in the same three seconds.

Field study across the vehicle’s physical controls and its companion app: two interfaces the rider uses in the same three seconds.

Human-factor Engineer

User Research

Mobile app

Usability Study

A person wearing the Cicerone headset, annotated with its LiDAR sensor, camera, haptic engine, and bone conduction audio
A person wearing the Cicerone headset, annotated with its LiDAR sensor, camera, haptic engine, and bone conduction audio
A person wearing the Cicerone headset, annotated with its LiDAR sensor, camera, haptic engine, and bone conduction audio
Cicerone

Cicerone Accessibility Wayfinder

Cicerone Accessibility Wayfinder

A wearable concept that lets blind and visually impaired travelers navigate open roads and indoor spaces independently, guided by haptic feedback.

A wearable concept that lets blind and visually impaired travelers navigate open roads and indoor spaces independently, guided by haptic feedback.

Accessibility

Co-design

Physical Prototyping

Sensor + Haptics

COLLABORATION / TRUST

COLLABORATION / TRUST

COLLABORATION / TRUST

Testimonials

Testimonials

Testimonials

PEOPLE I’VE WORKED WITH

PEOPLE I’VE WORKED WITH

PEOPLE I’VE WORKED WITH

A master of his craft, from the way he approaches the problems to his visual design skill, Dave really elevated the quality of our product.

Wale, Dave’s direct supervisor at Trofimo

Dave consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to making a significant impact.

Dominic, Dave’s direct supervisor at tms

I was constantly amazed by his incredible attention to detail and commitment to turning broad ideas into user-friendly experiences that appealed to a worldwide audience.

Noah, worked with Dave on the same team at tms

A master of his craft, from the way he approaches the problems to his visual design skill, Dave really elevated the quality of our product.

Wale, Dave’s direct supervisor at Trofimo

Dave consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to making a significant impact.

Dominic, Dave’s direct supervisor at tms

I was constantly amazed by his incredible attention to detail and commitment to turning broad ideas into user-friendly experiences that appealed to a worldwide audience.

Noah, worked with Dave on the same team at tms

Product designer at Trofimo, in Seattle.

Product designer at Trofimo, in Seattle.

Say hi about work, or just to talk shop.

Email

Résumé

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