Samsung KX

UX/ui, Events

Overview

Solo Works London was commissioned to create a media control display for Samsung's new event at Kings Cross. It had to be versatile and able to support any number of media apps for Samsung's 8K QLED TV range.

Challenges & Research

Samsung was still in the process of building the event, this meant we had to be agile and willing to pivot as we got details back from them. For instance, there was initially going to be a gaming category which was scrapped early on.I started my research by taking some paper prototypes and testing them with Samsung at the event as it was being built, as well as users in the surrounding area by taking photos of the designs and loading them into Marvel. To get the initial sketches, I looked at the existing media interface on different TVs, even going as far as getting friends and family to take pictures of their own to give me a point of reference before I started.This was taken as a first step as the audience was going to primarily be Samsung employees and locals. Only exceptions being when guest speakers were attending or workshops.

Personas

Emily, 25, Marketing Assistant - Samsung Employee
Heavily invested in the Samsung brand and attends all the events of theirs that she can. Understands technology and how something should work intuitively. Gets frustrated when a piece of software isn't clear about where it's going or what it's going to do.

Wants to be quick!

Dave, 45, Artist - Local
Always checks out new events in the area regardless of the subject. Always invests himself in new experiences in the hopes of gaining something meaningful for himself. Not the best with tech, but not through a lack of trying. This causes him problems when something isn't very easy to use, Apple's UX is something he appreciates without realising.

Believes in ease of use!

Alice, 28, Digital Designer - Workshop Attendee
Always learning new skills and constantly works on her development when she can. Frequents talks and workshops by design leaders and knows what to expect. She's busy, so when she uses a media interface she wants it to already know what she wants to an extent with the best example being Netflix.

Wants intuitiveness!

Outcome

Based on the research conducted and the user personas, I decided that the best way to improve the design would be to move it into a higher fidelity and stick to a simple carousel display to make everything as simple as possible. This meant moving into Adobe XD to start utilising Samsung's brand guidelines to start also developing the feel of the solution. The carousel menu had the best reception in terms of feedback which would also align with the needs of the personas Emily and Dave. To solve the needs of Alice, the content displayed first would always be the most popular choice of the users.However, after testing this prototype in a similar fashion to the paper one, I found another issue with the display. Using a carousel menu for both the content and the category was found to be a bit janky and uncomfortable for some users.  This meant that in the final delivery, it would need to be streamlined even further. This is also when I would work with Samsung to ensure that the UI was also in line with the Samsung KX visual identity. Once the final specs had been decided, a simpler carousel system would accommodate for Samsung's needs without an extra one for catagories. After user testing, it was found that it was best to display each category on the same page to avoid confusion. See the final product bellow:

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