Samsung Design Innovation Center

An image of the San Francisco

GLOBAL DESIGN STUDIO SERIES #1

Samsung design
innovation center

Jackson Square, San Francisco where architecture office and design agencies sit shoulder to shoulder. Among the crowd is the Samsung Design Innovation Center(SDIC): SDIC was started with the mind of creating innovation at Samsung Electronics
‘at just the right time with the right people’

Creating the future with today’s reality

Our primary mission at SDIC is to envision holistic, experience-driven innovation across
Samsung’s existing product portfolios as well as by creating new product categories.
Our expertise allows us to perceive lifestyle changes and technological disruptions and
forecast the latest trends to create an experience roadmap to new business
opportunities: hardware, software, and services as the combination of enablers,
fitting into peoples’ lifestyles, and helping them thrive.
SDIC focuses on ‘big changes’ with real impact

This is why we chose to locate in San Francisco. It puts us at the epicenter of innovation and
change. The Bay Area is known for its culture of innovation, a culture that embraces the diversity
of thinking and ideas and experiments and incubate concepts into business opportunities. In San
Francisco, start-up incubation meet-ups and conferences happen throughout every year. We tap
into this culture to open new doors for tomorrow.

HISTORY

1 9 9 4

Samsung Design America founded
(located in Palo Alto, CA)
2 0 0 0

LA branch lab founded
(Los Angeles, CA)
2 0 0 8

SF office merged into LA office
2 0 1 2

R&D Design convergence merges
two offices to SF
2 0 1 8

Samsung Design Innovation Center(SDIC) reshuffled
(San Francisco, CA)

An image shows Center Leader of SDIC, Frderico Casalegno

Our mission is to understand people and lifestyles to deliver
meaningful experiences, through beautiful yet functional
design, enabled by innovative cutting-edge technologies and AI.

SDIC leverage insights from throughout North America, with
particular attention to the vibrant Silicon Valley, to design
inspiring products and experiences. SDIC leads Samsung Design
Innovation with a talented team of multi-disciplinary creative
designers.

Federico Casalegno, Center Leader of SDIC

An image of SDIC staff having a meeting

OUR TEAM

Experience Innovation Team

We reimagine future products and services
through a fusion of human empathy, technology,
and strategy. We Combine Design thinking,
creative prototyping, and the latest AI tools
to shape groundbreaking new products, experiences,
and interactions.
Experience Design Team

We design future experience-driven innovation
opportunities with empathy and compassion for
people across the Samsung business portfolio.
We design experiences based on in-depth user
and market research to find insights and
foresights as the foundation of problem
identification.
Computational Design Team

We apply computational design and AI tools for
product and experience development. We create
digital twins of products or experiences that we
want to simulate, and apply the data back to
optimize and improve actual products or
experiences we want to provide to end users.
Through computational design and sophisticated
AI technologies, we empower designers to fully
unleash their creativity.
Computational Interaction Team

Pioneering human-centered AI involves bringing
together multi-disciplinary talents to transform
the future of human-AI interaction. We accelerate
the evolution of meaningful digital experiences
with adaptive solutions by enabling people
to interact with new products, cross-device, and
services in an evolving world.

OUR WORKS

FOLDABLE DEVICE EXPERIENCE DESIGN

SDIC worked with the Mobile eXperience Business to set in place a strategy and create innovative experiences for novel foldable form factors. Rapid prototyping and in-home user research were utilized to create informed and validated perspectives on the opportunity. These perspectives allowed SDIC designers to envision and build breakthrough new experiences that will help drive the next generation of Foldable form factors from Samsung.
GALAXY BUDS FUTURE EXPERIENCE

SDIC collaborated with the Mobile eXperience Business to define the future of earbuds. Cutting edge user research unlocked a nuanced understanding of people’s needs for hearing and deeper insight into the diversity in ear shapes. This foundation intersected with a deep knowledge of emerging AI and audio technologies unlocked a space for creative exploration which has yielded a broad range of new prototypes, IP and interactions alongside a clear roadmap towards the future.

GALAXY BUDS FUTURE EXPERIENCE

SDIC collaborated with the Mobile eXperience Business to define the future of earbuds. Cutting edge user research unlocked a nuanced understanding of people’s needs for hearing and deeper insight into the diversity in ear shapes. This foundation intersected with a deep knowledge of emerging AI and audio technologies unlocked a space for creative exploration which has yielded a broad range of new prototypes, IP and interactions alongside a clear roadmap towards the future.
The Future of Galaxy Intelligence for S-Pen

SDIC worked with the Mobile eXperience Business to shape the future of the Galaxy experience with S Pen. We created compelling everyday scenarios with novel interaction paradigms for enhanced visual and productivity experiences from a human-AI-centric design approach. This enables people to interact naturally with cross-devices and applications with greater ease and fluidity than ever before.
LIVE SHARING ON GOOGLE MEET

Developed in collaboration with Mobile Communication Part and Google, live sharing on Google Meet is integrated into Galaxy devices. You can watch your favorite videos and creators on YouTube, listen to music on Spotify or YouTube Music, and even play games such as Kahoot!, Heads Up!, and UNO! together during your Google Meet call. Google Meet is optimized for Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold series, so you can have a convenient hands-free video chat. Also, you can have a video meeting with up to 100 participants.
GALAXY VIEW2

The GALAXY VIEW2 offers an unprecedented mobile viewing experience. The foldable 17.3-inch display improves portability and the Dolby Atmos quad speakers enhance content immersion. Its ergonomic handle provides convenience. Influenced by standard furniture, the design harmonizes with the home interior and allows the user to conveniently enjoy content anywhere.
GALAXY BUDS & BUDS PLUS

The GALAXY BUDS provides comfort with its ergonomic wingtip, balanced sound, and a clear voice transmission by minimizing external noise. The GALAXY BUDS features battery life that lasts up to 20 hours with its pocket-sized case, along with fast charging capabilities and simple touch controls for a complete sound experience.
GALAXY FIT & FIT E

The GALAXY FIT is a smartwatch that reflects on the lifestyle of millennials. It can be used daily due to its light weight and comfort. The GALAXY FIT E can last up to 10 days without charging, which allows activity, sleep, and heart rate monitoring by observing the user all day long. The minimalistic-style smartwatch tracks every movement of the user.
SINGLE TAKE - CAMERA UX

The SINGLE TAKE MODE, created in collaboration with the Mobile Communications Business, is an AI camera function that allows users to capture various styles of photos and videos with a single tap. With a broad selection of camera lenses and features, including ultra-wide angle and live focus, users can conveniently encapsulate significant moments for up to 10 seconds.
Gear IconX(2018)

Gear IconX is Samsung’s first fully wireless earbuds. Designed and optimized to maximize freedom, Gear IconX is capable of storing up to 1,000 songs locally with continuous playback of up to five hours, the Gear IconX offers the flexibility of a completely standalone audio experience. Touch controls on the earbuds, voice assistant support and a sleek charging case complete the experience.
Gear fit2 pro

Gear Fit Pro is the water resistant (5ATM) smart fitness band. With Curved Super AMOLED display, it enables users to track their health, fitness, and lifestyle virtually anywhere. It has won iF award in 2017, 2018, as well as the IDEA award in 2017.
galaxy view

Galaxy View is a new type of 2 in 1 offering the functionality of a Tablet and the entertainment experience of a TV. Designed and optimized for streaming video, Galaxy View delivers an immersive viewing experience via its 18.4” display, engrossing audio via stereo 4W speakers and hands free usage through its thoughtfully integrated stand. With battery life of 8 hours and integrated WiFi/LTE, Galaxy View enables a TV-like experience, anywhere.
Gear Fit

Gear Fit was SDIC’s first wearable and Samsung’s first fitness device as well. It won the ‘Best Mobile Device’ award at Mobile World Congress in 2014, and its modular design, beautiful color display, and curved screen are still iconic today. SDIC design members pushed Samsung’s hardware expertise and had to balance information density in creating a “glanceable” experience.
Level Headphones Over

SDIC created Samsung’s first effort in the premium headphone sector. The industrial design team built a sleek and minimalist design for comfort and an intuitive and simple touch experience on the side of the headphone for a truly user focused headphone set.
Galaxy View

Working closely with the Seoul office, the SDIC office oversaw the entire project from original identification and incubation, through to manufacturing all the way through to the go-to-market process. The result was a new category in the entertainment market with using the Galaxy View.
Gear S

SDIC worked closely with the Seoul office Product team on the final design, materials and straps. The product strategy team was involved in helping build the service partner ecosystem, explaining how partners could adapt their services to the new world of wearables and even going to New York Fashion Week to present the device with designers like Diesel and Swarovski.
Gear Fit2

The Gear Fit2 was a multi-department collaborative effort. The product strategy team worked with local sales and retail teams to develop the Gear Fit2, incorporating user and retail feedback into the design from its inception for music and sensor accuracy as key features. As the project neared launch we helped support the local sales team with the positioning and go-to-market activities.
Gear Circle Headphones

Our designers wanted to be more fashion oriented with these headphones, designing a necklace that you would be comfortable leaving on and not have to worry about taking them out and untangling them.
Gear IconX

The SDIC teams worked together to build Samsung’s first truly wireless buds, Gear IconX. Our design team did deep ergonomics testing to ensure that the buds would stay in and solved the difficult challenge of putting 4GB of memory in them so that you can load your MP3s directly to the headphone and leave your phone in the locker room at the gym.

SAMSUNG DESIGN innovation center: 735 Battery St, San Francisco, CA 94111 America; To apply for position, please visit http://www.sra.samsung.com/careers

A map shows the location of SDIC

Samsung design innovation center