Ziyi Wang, Zhixuan Zhang, Hanzhen Zhao and Fan Zhang.

Fan Zhang: I’m a founding product designer at an AI startup. My background in computer science and architectural design naturally led me to product design, where I can combine technology and design to create thoughtful, human-centered products.

Zhixuan Zhang: I am a product designer focused on 2B SaaS experiences, currently designing at IBM. With an industrial design background, I bring a maker’s mindset into digital products, and I love uncovering real user needs and turning complex problems into intuitive solutions.

Ziyi Wang: I’m a UX designer who turns complex problems into clear, intuitive experiences. Originally studying computer science in my undergraduate program, I discovered how exciting it was to solve problems through designing experiences during one of my classes. I now work at a financial services company designing tools that streamline user workflows.

Hanzhen Zhao: I’m a product designer at an AI startup, building on learning experiences for 200,000+ users. I was drawn to design by a desire to refine how products feel and function, to create better experiences, elevate the sense of taste in digital products, and explore new, human-centered ways for people to interact with AI.

As a team, being recognized by the NY Product Design Awards is incredibly meaningful to us. It affirms our shared belief that design should help people navigate technology with clarity instead of stress, and that thoughtful experiences can genuinely make everyday life feel easier.

This recognition encourages us to continue exploring how human-centered thinking and emerging technologies can work together to support people in small but meaningful ways, and to keep creating work that brings confidence, simplicity, and dignity back into daily interactions with the digital world.

Fan Zhang: This recognition has been both validating and motivating. It’s brought more visibility to my work and opened doors to new collaborations in the AI space. It also reinforces the importance of design in shaping emerging technologies — and inspires me to keep pushing boundaries, building products that make AI more intuitive and human-centered.

Zhixuan Zhang: This award has been a meaningful affirmation for me. After years focusing on complex 2B systems, this project let me explore how technology can support everyday life. Being recognized for it gives me confidence to keep expanding into new product domains and shaping more human-centered experiences.

Ziyi Wang: Winning the NY Product Design Awards gave me strong validation for my design approach and accelerated my early career. It has opened doors to new collaborations and strengthened my chances of pursuing larger opportunities.

Hanzhen Zhao: Being recognized for this work encouraged me to keep expanding how AI can enhance daily life while supporting sustainability. It strengthened my belief in building AI experiences that bring clarity, efficiency, and responsible innovation to a wide range of everyday scenarios.

Experimentation played a central role in our process. Many of our ideas began as unconventional concepts—like embedding AR overlays into a live video call or reframing troubleshooting as a guided, narrative-like flow. Rather than assuming they would work, we built quick prototypes and tested them with users to uncover what felt intuitive and what created friction.

Those experiments helped us refine the interactions and balance innovation with real-world usability. And by exploring how Tada would behave in an actual troubleshooting setup—not just on an interface—we shaped a design philosophy focused on reducing stress, cognitive load, and physical friction.

One source of inspiration for us has been the new wave of AI startups creating agents to simplify online tasks. What we take from them is not the technical automation itself, but the intention behind it — using intelligence to quietly reduce friction and cognitive load in people’s digital lives. Their way of visualizing flows and simplifying decision-making reminds us how thoughtful design can make complex actions feel effortless.

We wish more people understood that the design process is dynamic. It’s not a fixed sequence of steps, but something that should evolve based on the context, the team, and the problem itself. Great design comes from adapting, not just following a process.

We try to approach it as collaboration rather than compromise. Understanding the client’s goals deeply often reveals shared values behind both perspectives. When that alignment is clear, it’s easier to adapt our ideas without losing their essence, creating solutions that feel true to the vision while still meeting real needs.

One of our biggest challenges was bridging the gap between a digital experience and the very physical, step-by-step actions involved in repairing something. People aren’t just clicking buttons. They’re turning parts, locating components, and navigating real objects that vary in size, lighting, and context.

To overcome this, we introduced multiple interaction modes, including photos, voice input, video guidance, live video calls, and AR overlays. These helped users quickly identify the right components and focus on each step with the least possible cognitive effort. It allowed us to turn a complex physical task into a guided, confidence-building digital experience.

We recharge our creativity by looking for inspiration in places that don’t normally relate to product design. Sometimes it comes from watching how people navigate tiny frustrations in daily routines, other times from art, crafts, or even mechanical objects. Stepping outside the usual design references helps us reset our mind, see patterns more clearly, and come back to the work with a fresher, more curious perspective.

As a team, we value empathy and simplicity. We strive to understand people deeply and design in a way that makes complex technology feel natural and approachable. Especially in AI, we believe simplicity isn’t about less. It’s about clarity, trust, and making innovation feel human.

Keep iterating — it’s the process that turns sand into glass. Every idea starts rough, but through patience, feedback, and refinement, it becomes something clear and strong. Great design isn’t about instant brilliance; it’s about transformation through persistence.

Stay curious about the problem, not just the solution. The designers who grow the fastest are the ones who question assumptions, observe real behavior, and aren’t afraid to iterate through the messy parts. Clarity comes from exploration, not perfection.

We would choose Naoto Fukasawa, because his philosophy of designing for unconscious, intuitive human behavior aligns perfectly with Tada’s mission. Tada is built around the idea that people don’t describe problems in technical language.

They describe feelings, sounds, and instincts. Fukasawa’s ability to capture those subtle human cues and turn them into simple, natural experiences would elevate Tada into an assistant that feels effortless, almost invisible, and deeply human.

One question we wish people would ask is: “What feeling do you hope your work leaves people with?”

Our answer: We hope our work makes technology feel a little lighter — less overwhelming, more intuitive, and more human. If a design can quietly reduce someone’s cognitive load or help them feel more in control of their everyday tasks, then we feel it’s doing something meaningful.