Samsung: Keyless Devices

Context

During my time at Experientia Global, I worked on a concept innovation project for Samsung, exploring interaction paradigms for future flagship smartphones.

As smartphones move towards all-screen devices, traditional physical buttons become obsolete. This raises a fundamental design challenge: how users interact with a device that has no physical controls.

Samsung asked Experientia to develop two navigation frameworks for a concept device, exploring how gesture-based interactions could replace physical buttons while remaining intuitive and efficient for users.

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My Role

Interaction Designer

I was part of a team of three interaction designers responsible for exploring new interaction concepts for buttonless smartphones.

The two navigation frameworks were initially developed collaboratively within the team.

I later took ownership of one of the frameworks and developed it further into a complete interaction design concept, including detailed interaction scenarios, interface concepts and validation through prototyping and usability testing.

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Approach

The project followed an exploratory and research-driven design approach, combining interaction design, expert workshops and user testing.

Key activities included:

• benchmarking emerging mobile interaction patterns
• analyzing how device posture, context and user expectations influence navigation behaviour
• conducting workshops with interaction experts and cognitive psychologists
• collaboratively developing two alternative navigation frameworks
• further developing one framework into a complete interaction design concept
• building functional and high-fidelity prototypes to simulate the interactions
• conducting usability tests to evaluate clarity, speed and learnability

Close collaboration with Samsung engineering teams ensured that the interaction concepts were technically feasible.

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Key Contributions

• Co-developed two navigation frameworks for buttonless smartphones
• Took ownership of one framework and developed it into a full interaction design concept
• Designed new gesture-based navigation patterns and interaction scenarios
• Created functional and high-fidelity prototypes to simulate the interaction models
• Conducted usability tests to evaluate learnability and interaction flow
• Collaborated closely with Samsung engineering teams to validate technical feasibility

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Impact

The project produced a complete interaction design vision for a future Samsung flagship device.

Key outcomes included:

• Two alternative navigation frameworks exploring buttonless interaction
• A fully developed interaction concept for one framework
• Prototypes demonstrating the interaction models
• Usability insights informing Samsung’s future interface development
  

According to internal feedback from Samsung, several elements of the proposed interaction patterns were later incorporated into Samsung’s system UI design.

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Skills Demonstrated

Interaction Design

Future Interface Concepts

UX Research

Prototyping

Usability Testing

Mobile UX

Concept Innovation

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