Q: Please briefly introduce yourself, Samsung R&D Institute China-Nanjing, and the kind of work that goes on there. What projects are you working on?

My name is Lin Ding, Head of the User Experience (UX) Lab at Samsung R&D Institute China-Nanjing (SRC-N). SRC-N primarily develops software for TV, mobile, and other electronic products in accordance with our vision of “Create Innovative Values with World-Best Software Technology.” And the UX Lab is a design organization that focuses on the user experience for TV, mobile, and other device platforms and services.

As you are aware, interface experience connects software technology to its users. The UX Lab encompasses the entire UX process and capability, from user research to interface design and usability evaluation; we always strive to create user-satisfied services and interfaces, and we do our best to find innovative and executable scenarios for users.

The UX Lab’s main execution fields are interaction, 2D, 3D visual, and motion design. The UX Lab, which is based on advanced technologies such as AI and AR, offers a completely new experience and design solutions based on the Samsung global TV UX design language. We apply the Samsung TV UX design principle to both global and Chinese local platforms and services, releasing some specialized designs based on local needs and Chinese local TV characteristics.

Q: Please tell me about the importance of your research field or technology.

In terms of our impact on global TV product UX, we have worked closely with the Service Business Team in North America on the core service products for Samsung’s Visual Display Division. Our signature service products, such as TV Plus, Universal Guide, Samsung Health, and Samsung Gaming Hub, are included in the product portfolio. In addition, our designers have been working with them on production-level design specifications such as IxD (interaction design specification), GUI (visual design specification), and motion design spec. These spec documents have evolved into blueprints that the Engineering Team and the Quality Assurance Team use to implement our design and ensure the quality of our design meets the standards we strive for. This has been an excellent opportunity for our design team to make a global impact on commercialization projects.

As a distinct team dedicated to optimizing the Chinese local TV UX, we must continuously provide a competitive and best-in-class experience for Chinese users. We have the advantage of designing localized TV UX in a local environment. In-depth research and analysis, as well as TV UX trends, assist us in forming timely insight. We can learn about the habits and needs of Chinese TV viewers through quantitative and qualitative user research. We consider how to bring Global TV UX to local Chinese users, determining what we must inherit and what we must modify. How do you match Chinese users’ TV viewing habits and modify the design? We make sure that our design not only has Samsung’s global design philosophy, but is also suitable for Chinese users.

Our UX Lab also conducts extensive research on Multi Device Experience (MDE) related UX, which includes user scenarios such as device connection, task continuation, collaboration work, and content sharing. These scenarios make users’ work and lives much easier. Users can continue watching the mobile video on TV when they are close to the TV, and they can cast the mobile screen to the TV to take advantage of the large screen. Rely on a voice assistant to determine which device should respond to the user’s instructions first. UX Lab is conducting research and writing papers in the field of MDE in order to produce more valuable design methods and design thinking.

Q: Can you tell us about the main achievement and rewarding moment in your research, or the episode?

In 2017, I was named in the top 5% of over 9,000 participants in the world’s largest design competition, which was held in Italy. Our UX Lab received a Silver A’ Design Award in Graphics and Visual Communication Design.

In 2020, our UX Lab received an iF Design Award (iF Industry Forum Design) as one of 1,453 awardees from 7,298 participants from 56 countries around the world.

Furthermore, in 2022, while working with colleges, our UX Lab independently completed a dissertation research with academic value titled "How People Get Peak Experience When They Use TV?," and the research results were adopted by the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), resulting in an invitation to conduct online seminars on the research. Finally, the dissertation was published in Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science series, Volume 13325.

Q: What is your vision for the future, and what goal would you want to achieve?

I sincerely hope that my team will always be at the forefront of science and technology, have a deep understanding of users, and do an excellent job of bridging the experience between technology and users.

My mission is to ensure that the UX Lab makes a significant contribution to Samsung’s global user experience innovation. We hope that our UX Lab can act as a catalyst for Samsung’s advanced technology to land, and that we can provide more high-value UX design for Samsung’s core products.