Helping Samsung speak the language of the masses.

Introduction

Samsung aims to provide its smartphone customers with consistent and delightful experiences, and recognized the increasing importance of content UX for localization. In a bid to increase its appeal in the Indian subcontinent, the design team at Samsung set out to conduct research and analysis to come up with a strategy for localized content in Hindi, Bengali and Marathi.

My Role

Agrahyah was selected as the partner agency for its expertise in understanding the Indian demographic, and I was assigned to lead the project. Collaborating with linguistic experts from each of the three languages, we conducted user research and performed content UX analysis, while I prepared models, reports and guidelines for Samsung’s design team to follow.

Business Value

Having Samsung’s mobile interface, OneUI, understand and cater to the demographic needs of vernacular India was a big step towards solidifying its customer base and loyalty in the subcontinent. This project generated insights and strategy that their team could use while tailoring the operating system for the nuances, needs, and context of the target audience.

Sources for Research

There were three primary sources of data and knowledge planned. First, I carried out a deep-dive UX analysis of 7 core system apps across Samsung and 5 other competitors, to understand how well they currently did localized content and identify possible hurdles.

Next, a focus group discussion was carried out for audience insights and demographic need analysis, with participants picked from Lucknow, Kolkata and Kolhapur, three major cities in the Hindi, Bengali and Marathi regions of India.

Lastly, I collaborated with linguistic experts from each language to identify problems in the current localization implementation and chart out areas of improvement.

Reports and Modeling

With data from all three sources gathered, I set about creating a report that factored in everything I’d learned so far. The report included takeaways, key insights, competitor analysis summary, demographic needs. I also modeled the data into the Stereotype Content Model and Kano Model frameworks, to quickly identify product perception and prioritize next steps. As a final deliverable, I composed strategic recommendations to aid Samsung’s design team during the localization implementation process, and a design system for reference while targeting this demographic.

Every OneUI system app was drawn on Kano and Stereotype Content Model graphs

Takeaways

Working with a team from Samsung on a deep dive into localization nuances was an incredible experience. I learned a great deal about user research, data analysis, understanding demographic nuances, and linguistic design, while working with experts to model the data and convert the insights into reports and strategy.