Hi! I'm John.

I’m a design engineer who builds products 0 → 1 across software and hardware.

Most recently, I was at Sanas AI as their design engineer, leading the 0 → 1 mobile design for live language translation. Before that, I built digital experiences and hardware solutions for commercial coffee machines at BrewBird and Poursteady.

Currently, I’m in the Republic of Korea Army as a military science & technology soldier specializing in additive manufacturing. I’ll be available for design roles beginning in 2028, but I’m always open to connect in the meantime.

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Work

Sanas Translate

Sanas builds live AI translation technology for B2B customer-service voice operations. In parallel, the company set out to bring that technology to consumers through a mobile app, with a different audience, context, and set of product needs.

I joined to take the mobile experience from 0 → 1, adapting technology built for enterprise workflows into a consumer product. That work moved in both directions: I adapted the mobile experience to a voice AI stack that changed every few weeks, while the consumer needs I uncovered shaped changes to the backend.

Working with backend engineers, I shipped a React Native MVP that won Most Innovative at the 2025 Expo App Awards . We later rebuilt it natively, where I designed and built directly in Xcode and Android Studio alongside mobile engineers to launch the iOS and Android apps available today .

BrewBird

BrewBird is a Sequoia-backed startup building a coffee ecosystem that connects local roasters with offices through whole-bean pods and machines that grind and brew on demand. I joined as an intern as its machines rolled out at Meta, where early use exposed hardware reliability and usability problems that the existing light-and-color LED display could not clearly communicate.

I worked across two horizons. For BrewBird’s planned 720 × 720 circular LCD, I led 0 → 1 interaction design for an interface that used its round form intentionally. In parallel, I researched deployed machines in the field, observing and interviewing office users and coffee-service operators. Those findings shaped both the future LCD experience and immediate improvements to the current fleet, including new light patterns, hardware cues, and signage that reduced user-induced failures.

I later returned part-time and resolved a longstanding light-bleed defect, enabling the LED display to communicate with words for the first time.

Poursteady PS2

Poursteady builds automated commercial pour-over coffee machines. I joined during DVT for the PS2, after Smart Design had established the exterior industrial design but before its operating experience had been defined. I took that experience from 0 → 1, designing flows for its 128 × 64 monochrome OLED and rotary knob across onboarding, settings, recipe creation, and brewing.

I learned pour-over coffee myself, studying its ritual, recipe logic, and baristas’ mental models. I translated that knowledge into an interface for creating complex recipes and reading each stage of a brew at a glance. I also addressed industrial design and engineering issues across the PS2 and Classic product lines.

The PS2 was recognized as Runner Up at the 2024 Silicon Valley UX Awards and Notable at the 2024 Core77 Design Awards .

Beyond work

  • John in graduation robes inside a fabrication lab
  • John presenting an interactive project at a design exhibition
  • Students pouring molten metal in a fabrication workshop
  • Students gathered around a coffee workshop
  • A student operating a milling machine
  • John brewing pour-over coffee at a coffee festival
  • John serving coffee to a group at a coffee pop-up
01 / 07

I’m drawn to solving problems in whatever medium fits them best. At Stanford, I studied product design (BS ’23) and mechanical engineering (MS ’25), learning to explore ideas across mediums while keeping people’s needs at the center.

During my master’s, I taught design and manufacturing at Stanford’s Product Realization Lab (PRL), helping students across disciplines take projects from 0 → 1. I also co-designed a coffee engineering course and TA’d the department’s additive manufacturing course, mentoring students in fields that continue to shape my own work.

That same curiosity carries into the things I make outside work: coffee and cocktails for friends, 3D-printed tools for my coffee setup, and, inevitably, more coffee. Below are two of my favorites: Bloom and Ratio.

Bloom

Bloom is a portable coffee dripper designed around the manufacturing constraints of injection molding. Inspired by a blooming flower and Hario’s Suiren, its modular form accommodates both flat-bottom and conical filters, combining the flexibility of an Origami dripper with a structure designed for production.

ratio:

Ratio began with a simple question: how might scaling recipes feel effortless, intuitive, and enjoyable, especially for pour-over coffee? I designed and built the app natively for iOS using Xcode and SwiftUI.

Download Ratio on the App Store .

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