By: Ellison Blake
Mingzhi Cai, an award-winning product experience designer based in NYC, is currently making an impact at one of the world’s leading fintech giants. With over 8 years of experience immersed in the design universe, Mingzhi is a versatile designer with expertise that spans a spectrum of disciplines, ranging from industrial design to 3D art, graphic design, experience design, AR/VR, and design systems. Her contributions to design systems have had a lasting impact on her team, enhancing design and collaboration efficiency. She is also deeply passionate about sharing her knowledge with the design community. Her portfolio suggests that design categories might be more fluid than previously thought.
Initially, Mingzhi came from an industrial design background due to her passion for handmade crafts. However, the school curriculum leaned more towards computer-augmented design, leading her to delve into 3D art and modeling. Given her immersion in digital design, she naturally gravitated towards interaction and user interface design. A pivotal moment came in 2017 during the 9th User Experience Design Award, organized by UXPA China. Mingzhi led the team in designing a unique VR tool that allowed fans to feel as if they were right alongside their favorite stars at concerts, and successfully clinched the national silver award, best VR award, and best visual presentation award all at once. This win, at an event recognized by every experience designer, wasn’t just a trophy; it fueled Mingzhi’s enthusiasm for interaction design and solidified her path forward. Following that, she ventured into various sub-domains within experience and interaction design, such as AR/VR, enterprise experience, and design systems.
Over time, Mingzhi has come to see that experience design has an immense impact, addressing real-world issues and making a positive difference in people’s lives. “Committing to this discipline has been fulfilling, and every instance of resolving a challenge and receiving grateful feedback from users reaffirms that I’m on the right track.” Mingzhi draws inspiration from the timeless adage, “form follows function,” from the late 19th century. For her, design transcends mere aesthetics; it’s a mindset, a tool for problem-solving. “To me, design is a vehicle to address challenges. It’s about serving the end users, regardless of the design’s form,” she remarks. As a result, Mingzhi places a strong emphasis on designs that help people. Her creations are a blend of function and beauty, a reflection of her unique background that melds science and art. Her understanding of both worlds allows Mingzhi to excel in areas like design systems—a blend of UI (user interface) components and coding, standardizing visuals, promoting team collaboration, and streamlining software implementation, offering substantial value to businesses. As the concept of a “design librarian” gains traction, Mingzhi confidently makes her mark.
The challenge of fintech design lies in its intricate financial data presentations. Typically, designers spend vast amounts of time creating tables, charts, and other data patterns to simplify these complexities for users. Observing the redundancy in such tasks, Mingzhi set out to improve and standardize design workflows. Under her guidance, her team revamped their design system, enhancing its configurability and boosting the team’s work efficiency, which led to a significant 200%+ uptick in usage. Mingzhi remarks, “Now, they can put together a table within a couple of minutes instead of hours. Our design team not only loves but also greatly benefits from what we did.” This wasn’t just a professional win; it was a testament to the potential of knowledge sharing.
In line with her ethos of “design to help people,” Mingzhi extended her expertise to the wider design community. Inspired by the success of her team, she decided to share her knowledge and experience to benefit the broader audience. Upon releasing her “Responsive Table” on the Figma community, it swiftly resonated with the platform’s vast user base and immediately got featured in one of the official collections, underscoring the demand for such practical innovations. Beyond her direct contributions to design projects, Mingzhi has further impacted the industry through her thought leadership. She synthesized her takeaways through professional articles and got featured on the renowned Medium publication UX Collective Bootcamp and China’s top UX design platform uisdc.com, offering groundbreaking insights into design practices. These contributions are considered seminal works, helping countless UX professionals to elevate their skills and approach to design.
With over 8 years immersed in the world of design, Mingzhi’s relentless pursuit of excellence remains undeterred. Having recently won multiple international awards, including the MUSE Creative Awards and NY Product Design Awards, Mingzhi is now focusing on a more ambitious project: a comprehensive data visualization library featuring over 30 common charts. “Charts are essential when it comes to analytics and information delivery. However, standardizing chart design is challenging due to its nuanced nature,” she observes. It took her 3 months to conduct extensive research on charts and color usage. “I referenced premier data visualization libraries and crafted a user-friendly library that simplifies the design process for various chart types.” The library’s success is already evident, marked by thousands of downloads and positive reception from the design community.
“The positive feedback and enthusiasm from those eager to learn more about my work have been incredibly rewarding. When I see other designers bookmarking my works and words, it encourages me to keep going.” Mingzhi shares. Reflecting on her journey, she remains true to her original aspiration of marrying function with aesthetic in design as she pushes the boundaries of creativity and innovation. Unwavering in her dedication, Mingzhi will continue to promote design knowledge and contribute to the design community. Dive deeper into Mingzhi’s creations: https://www.figma.com/@mingzhic
