Samsung Galaxy
Media UX
Creating the next generation Music and Gallery
user experience for Samsung Galaxy smartphones
In 2010, Samsung Mobile contacted the Samsung DMC Research Center in search of advanced UX concepts for the next generation Galaxy smartphone. Leading the team of four, I delivered the brand new UX concept, which enables the simplest way to enjoy multimedia content such as photos, videos, and music. The proposal was so successful that Samsung Mobile went further and
requested us to take charge of the production phase. The new UX helped Samsung Mobile to achieve the top smartphone market share in 2012 with the Galaxy S2, and the best-selling smartphone in 2013 with the Galaxy S3. Due to this outstanding performance, I was appointed as one of the top designers of the year by the head of the DMC Research Center.
CLIENT
TIMELINE
ROLE
CREDIT
Samsung Mobile
Feb - Jul 2010
Project Lead
Tae Young Kang
Y H Lee (User Interface)
S O Cha (User Interface)
M J Park (Visual Design)
OUTCOME
Music, Gallery, and Web application proposal
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Concept proposal
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Video prototypes
Music & Gallery Application UX Archetype
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Application workflows
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Screen & Interaction designs
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Patents (4)
PROCESS & METHODOLOGIES
Define
Problems
Define
Missions
Deliver
Solution
Co-create
Diagnose
Optimize
Understand
Discover
Define
Develop
Deliver
Hands-on experience
VOC review
Use case observation
Personae Creation
User Interview
Heuristic Evaluation
User journey mapping
Key insights mapping
Challenge framing
Case studies
Crossfield Inspirations
Idea workshops
Prototyping iterations
UI/ GUI design iterations
Target user validation
Stakeholder validation
UX Design Archetypes
Video Prototypes
Patents (4)
Galaxy S2 series
Galaxy S3 series
DISCOVER
Heuristic Evaluation
We also conducted a heuristic evaluation of the photo and music apps on Samsung’s most recent mobile product, the i900 Omnia, and we gained some hands-on experience of the apps of other brands. This was to empathise with our users’ needs and pain points and to broaden our perspectives by experiencing many different apps. Each team member used the target applications intensively for a week and described the pros and cons as well as any other opinions about each product.
Personae & Interviews
To recruit the target users, we created some mock personae based on the data that we collect from the VOC channels of the Samsung Global Marketing team. Then, we recruited real users who resembled these personae.
However, due to confidentiality, we had to recruit the interviewees only from inside Samsung. We contacted six users and conducted interviews along with user testings to discover each user’s usage patterns, desires, and pain points of using the media applications in their devices.
User Journey
Next, we created a user journey map based on the information that we obtained from the interviews and heuristic evaluations. We used this to define the main problems faced when consuming media content.
DEFINE
Key Insights Mapping
Challenges Framing
We categorized the findings from the user journey to gain more organized insights. We then identified four major problem areas in the experience of consuming media content on mobile devices.
Cross-field Inspiration
As user experience in consuming media content is not limited to mobile phones, we also looked into streaming services such as YouTube and Bugs music, and media database services like IMDB, to broaden our perspective.
To get inspiration for intuitive interactions that are suitable for dealing with huge amounts of media files, we mainly referred to traditional and analog experiences such as flipping the pages of a book, looking at CD albums or shuffling and spreading poker cards, as well as general interactions with index cards in libraries.
DESIGN
Ideation Workshops
Based on the collected insights, we facilitated three ideation workshops with Samsung mobile's UX and product planning team. We divided the user journey into three parts and collected as many ideas as we can during each day. Then, we used dot stickers with the evaluation index to filter out the ideas.
Refine Usecases
We chose the following nine stories as the key features of our new apps and started UI design:
Concept Proposal
Based on the nine stories, we proposed twelve new concepts for Music, Gallery, and Web browser to the head of Samsung Mobile UX along with the video prototypes.
The concepts were well received by Samsung Mobile, and they asked us to go further to the next phase, which was wireframing and visual interaction designing.
UX Design Iterations
After finishing the Information Architecture of Gallery and Music application, we went on designing the detail workflows. As for the visual style, Samsung Mobile asked us to apply their existing design system.
Although the project target was the next generation Galaxy smartphone, to be released two years after from then, Samsung mobile expected production level details on our deliverables.
User tests & Stakeholders validation
We frequently shared our designs with the Samsung mobile UX, the product planning team, who took in charge of optimizing our proposal and implement it to the line-up product. Also, Samsung mobile quality assurance team validated our design throughout the process. We conducted user testing with six users and used the data to share with the leading Telecommunication companies worldwide.
DELIVER
UX Design Archetype
The proposal was so successful that Samsung Mobile went further and requested us to take charge of the production phase. The new UX helped Samsung Mobile to achieve the top smartphone market share in 2012 with the Galaxy S2, and the best-selling smartphone in 2013 with the Galaxy S3.
Patents
Securing smartphone UI patents was also a crucial goal of this project. We successfully delivered four patents that save user's time and effort to browse, play, manage and share media contents in smartphones. Although many years have passed since we delivered, my team's contributions can still be seen inside the lastest Galaxy smartphones.
