By: Dr TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics
Last year, I expanded my responsibilities as head of Samsung’s MX Business to lead our Corporate Design Center. My engineering career taught me that the most sublime designs are intertwined with technological innovation. This new responsibility allows me to delve deeper into how the synergy of design, engineering, and R&D can yield transformative experiences. I’ve deeply explored Samsung’s design strategy with my fellow designers to understand our roots and envision our growth.
Different Times, Unchanged Commitment
In 1996, Samsung committed to a philosophy: “Inspired by Humans, Creating the Future.” It means our creations are conceived with a deep understanding of you, the user, and we believe a user-centric approach is the key to the future.
We feel this even more keenly nearly 30 years on as we contemplate the fluid nature of human interaction. Users value experiences over mere achievements and meaningful connections over raw technological prowess. We have distilled the Samsung design philosophy into three guiding identities, each with you at the centre: our products must be essential, innovative, and harmonious.
Samsung and Dezeen hold a Global Design Challenge
The essential design prioritizes clarity of purpose and ease of daily use. The innovative design emphasizes originality, reflecting intentions in new and distinct ways. The harmonious design ensures all elements work together holistically, aligning with societal, environmental and ethical values.
Inspired by Humans, Creating the Future
These three design identities are exemplified by our latest hardware and software ecosystem.
Take, for instance, the act of folding and unfolding a smartphone. It seems simple. However, that simplicity users feel is only achieved through a rigorous focus on what is most essential and intuitive. The minimal, sleek appearance housing specialized hinge functionality emphasizes our commitment and the inherent beauty of the basic design.
We’ve raised the standards for foldable smartphone ergonomics. A difference of a millimetre in a device’s thickness may not sound like a significant change, but every gram and millimetre in a foldable device requires an engineering breakthrough. It demands craftsmanship with passion. When done well, the benefit to users is enormous. That’s why we’ve innovated to make our latest foldable slimmer and lighter while simultaneously more durable than our previous generations.
With our foldable, your self-expression with the most flexible camera experience reaches new levels. You can capture the perfect angle hands-free. The enhanced multitasking experience, like a PC, also raises the bar for productivity. You can work, collaborate, or game on-the-go.
Samsung Galaxy Tab and Wearables are designed in the same spirit. They work with each other harmoniously in an ecosystem that opens up a powerfully connected experience, serving as a seamless extension of your needs, priorities and unique personality.
Whatever the Samsung Galaxy experience is, when we say “Inspired by Humans,” we don’t just mean people. We also mean their communities, their environment and their planet. Samsung Galaxy devices are designed with sustainability in mind because even minor actions, such as protecting our planet, contribute to a significant impact. When we say “Creating the Future,” that includes our responsibility today to ensure a sustainable tomorrow for the future generation.
Our Shared Journey to a Better Tomorrow
When design comes together with technological innovation, it brings forth new possibilities. With innovative technologies, people can make the most of today and create the best possible tomorrow. We invite you to join us at Unpacked, where we’ll pull back the curtain on our latest devices and experiences inspired by you, created for you.
In a way, they were nearly 30 years in the making, a culmination of decades of human-inspired design. But this is also just the beginning. Seeing how our innovations blend into your lives, enabling new possibilities for creativity, productivity or self-expression, will inspire the next steps of our journey. So, let’s navigate this journey together, harnessing design and technology to create a future that reflects you.
Mark your calendars for July 26!