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dave tianxiang cai
dave cai

Product Designer

|

B2C + B2B

Designing at trofimo

I design the systems behind how people discover, plan, order, and pay.

dave

hi.

i’m dave

hi.

i’m dave

Currently leading product design for Dynery Dining System at Trofimo.

dave

resume.pdf
RESUME ↗
D

PREVIOUSLY Worked with

PREVIOUSLY Worked with

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

Three Dynery app screens showing restaurant discovery, group event planning, and order checkout
Dynery by Trofimo

Designing for foodies & restaurants

Live B2C + B2B

350+

Components
& states

3,000+

Users

I led Dynery, an AI-powered dining app from 0→1 into a multi-sided platform connecting diners, restaurants, and event organizers, then stayed through design QA in production.

SUPPORTING WORK

Selected projects

Selected projects

Selected projects

WEB + MOBILE + SPATIAL + IN-PERSON

WEB + MOBILE + SPATIAL + IN-PERSON

04 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

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

Working Overtime 24-hour relay shift board and mobile race-day handoff controls

Working Overtime

Working Overtime

An AI-directed command center for a 10-runner, 24-hour relay—built around constraints, QA, and live race-day calls.

An AI-directed command center for a 10-runner, 24-hour relay—built around constraints, QA, and live race-day calls.

AI-native Build

Multi-user Collaboration

AI / PROTOTYPING

AI / PROTOTYPING

AI / PROTOTYPING

AI exploration

AI exploration

AI exploration

I use AI to build faster

while owning the constraints, trade-offs, testing, and what ships.

I use AI to build faster

while owning the constraints, trade-offs, testing, and what ships.

I use AI to build faster

while owning the constraints, trade-offs, testing, and what ships.

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

“Overtime“ 24-hour Running 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

“Overtime“ 24-hour Running 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

“Overtime“ 24-hour Running 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.

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
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 that lets visually impaired travelers navigate as a group, and arrive without a sighted guide.

A wearable that lets visually impaired travelers navigate as a group, and arrive without a sighted guide.

Accessibility

Co-design

Physical Prototyping

Sensor + Haptics

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

Usability Study

Mobile app

User Research

PHOTOGRAPHY / STORYTELLING

PHOTOGRAPHY / STORYTELLING

PHOTOGRAPHY / STORYTELLING

Content Creation

Content Creation

Content Creation

EVERY FRAME OF MY LIFE IS CINEMATIC
EVERY FRAME OF MY LIFE IS CINEMATIC
EVERY FRAME OF MY LIFE IS CINEMATIC
A Tesla vehicle parked outside a building at dusk
Content production

Tesla

Official video production

End-to-end video and motion work.

Learn More

A Tesla vehicle parked outside a building at dusk
Content production

Tesla

Official video production

End-to-end video and motion work.

Learn More

A waterfall in a canyon at sunset
Photography

Ten years behind a camera

2016–present

Landscape, portrait, and street work.

Learn More

A waterfall in a canyon at sunset
Photography

Ten years behind a camera

2016–present

Landscape, portrait, and street work.

Learn More

CAPABILITIES / WORKING STYLE

CAPABILITIES / WORKING STYLE

CAPABILITIES / WORKING STYLE

Skills

Skills

Skills

A designer does more than draw pretty rounded rectangles

A designer does more than draw pretty rounded rectangles

A designer does more than draw pretty rounded rectangles

Product management

Where design meets strategy

Turn ambiguity into a roadmap

Align stakeholders before build

Cut scope without losing the point

Ship, measure, decide what’s next

Illustration of a project management board, by Atlassian

Illustrated by Atlassian

User research

Evidence before opinion

Watch people fail, don’t just ask

Turn interviews into direction

Test concepts before we commit

Bring evidence to roadmap fights

Three people sketching and annotating on paper during a co-design session

Coding

Fluent with engineering

Build the front end, not just spec

Hand off in the engineers’ language

Catch feasibility issues early

Use AI for the parts past my depth

Two people wiring an Arduino breadboard next to a laptop

prototyping

Turning ideas into reality

Make it real before arguing for it

Settle debates slides keep alive

Paper, Figma, Arduino, or Unity

Put a testable thing in their hands

Editing footage at a dual-monitor desk setup

business strategy

Driving business performance

Argue for the work in budget terms

Own the launch’s success metric

Tie design calls to go-to-market

Turn analytics into the next bet

Working at a laptop in the tms office

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

Way too much value for free to be honest.

Dom

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

Way too much value for free to be honest.

Dom

If you’re hiring a product designer who can take a system from strategy to shipped — or you just want to talk shop

If you’re hiring a product designer who can take a system from strategy to shipped — or you just want to talk shop

Let’s chat!

Let’s chat!

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