Company: Samsung
Role: Design lead, concept, ideation, creative direction
Dates: April 2014 – April 2016
Situation
After successfully delivering the Chef Collection tablet experience, the Vice President of our group, Iain Langridge, asked me to help him with the revamp of the loyalty app his team had inherited. Initially marketing-focused, we were now looking to integrate some pretty robust customer service options into the app. I led the effort in a hybrid Product Owner/Design Lead role.
Task
The goal was to simplify what had become a very bloated and confusing app (too many choices, poor IA, outdated visuals). A reorg had combined the content and feature capabilities of 3 teams into one org and further compounded the problem of “feature bloat.”
We needed a way to cut through the noise and avoid a Las Vegas situation… with every important feature vying for attention. One of my design mantras is, “Good design is an outcome of radical prioritization.” I needed a way to prioritize all of our content and features.
Action
I set out to understand what customers needed by looking at data from our customer insights team. This data showed that we could do a much better job of tailoring content and features for our customers based on where they were in their journey with Samsung (i.e. with their product). This insight became the backbone for the content strategy I defined.
Seeing that the needs were different at different phases of the customer journey, I could cut the clutter by featuring content in a timely and contextually relevant way.
I came up with a content framework focusing on educating customers, providing help, and rewarding their loyalty. The idea was to tie the delivery and surfacing of content and features to the lifecycle. I didn’t have to present everything at once.
I then drafted a vision and defined core use cases. I worked with an agency to deliver a streamlined, contemporary UI with a focus on educating customers, providing help, and rewarding their loyalty.
Result
Samsung+ immediately garnered great user reviews and jumped to a 4.0+ rating for the first time since its release. More downloads (now over 12MM), incredible retention (80%) along with more active and engaged users than ever before.
