Samsung Galaxy On-Device Help

UX design / User Research

Motivation

Business goal of Verizon wireless team was to reduce the customer care calls regarding how to use the device or features, i.e. UX related issues. To address this, formal usability testing was included as part of device approval process and address all critical issues found. From different perspective, I thought it would be good to have some kind of tool which guides users to learn how to use the features, not necessarily require them to visit web page, but on smartphone itself. I noticed that all Samsung smartphones didn’t have help or tutorials on device. From this recognition, I tried to convince HQ management team to work on this, and got 2 designers dispatched for 2 months to work on this concept with me in NJ. I have led the project and delivered the result to HQ. Taking that as baseline, now all Samsung Galaxy series devices have on device help applications. 3 main directions were suggested :

• need stand alone help application to consolidate all device related tutorials or tips.
• on screen help should be provided only when it is relevant and needed. *‘Try it’ link in the help application or ‘Need help?’ link in actual application.

Implimentation

I initiated this project when I was a team lead in NJ UX team, when no Galaxy smartphones carried on device help application. I presented the findings and design suggestion from this project to HQ design management and convinced them this is critical feature for Samsung smart phones and they decided to implement this on Samsung TouchWiz UX platform for global launch. From Galaxy S2, this feature was included and introduced globally. Help application, on screen tutorial and step by step guide link were implemented as the project originally proposed.