Background

In 2022, Samsung had recently begun selling their products through their own site, but their overall UX maturity was still developing. 

We were brought in to elevate the user experience and help turn browsing into sales. The brief was open-ended — we essentially had the mandate to step in and improve wherever we saw the need.

We were also tasked with refining fast-moving materials, such as campaigns and other time-sensitive content — a challenge in its own right.

The challenge

When we started working with Samsung, their online presence felt fragmented. With a wide range of products — from phones and TVs to vacuum cleaners and refrigerators — each managed by separate departments, consistency was a challenge.

Their strong focus on unique product launches and campaign pages also made them hesitant to adopt more flexible, reusable templates. The design process had become reactive, with each new scenario prompting a fresh design decision.

Our task was to create a scalable design system and set of templates that could handle diverse content and product types while remaining efficient and easy for their teams to use.

Buying a phone can be a complex process, with numerous add-ons like insurance or subscription plans affecting the final price. The key is to clearly guide customers on what they need to decide, what each choice means, and how to make it. Our goal was to make the complex feel simple.

We created and refined campaign templates, aiming for the lowest common denominator to maximize maintainability and user recognition. We also designed UX for several complex flows, including trade-in, plan sign-ups, product selection wizards, and more.

Since Samsung’s business is heavily campaign-driven, core UX work was frequently interrupted by new campaigns and seasonal events.

Establishing a unified, modular design system proved difficult — partly due to constant campaign demands, partly because each product department had its own agenda, and partly because Samsung’s global guidelines and HQ-driven campaigns limited flexibility.

Campaigns come in many shapes and forms — some focus on discounts, bundles, or deals. Here are two examples of more content-heavy campaigns. In Make Life Better, products are grouped by lifestyle — a “day in the life” concept supported by films and real-life scenarios.

In For the Love of Sound, the focus is on a song and a video featuring hard-to-hear frequencies. It’s a creative and playful approach, but also highly unique and requires a lot of hands-on work.

Different product listings were created to accommodate the wide range of campaigns and product types. The ability to easily choose and apply the right listing for each scenario proved extremely helpful.