The Kid’s User Experience

Samsung has taken a holistic approach to creating a child-friendly digital environment with Kids Mode, an entire interface designed for kids, available on their smartphones and tablets.

Kids Mode gives parents flexible control over the apps, videos, music and other content that a child can access. After downloading and installing the app, parents can set up a PIN and a profile for their child and select different controls and restrictions for each profile created. They can also limit how long a child spends on a device each day and monitor their daily activity by app.

With a simplified user interface in Kids Mode, kids can enjoy a color-rich environment, with large buttons and uncomplicated controls to heighten the fun. The exclusive native apps capture the spirit of play and are easily recognizable by their titles and icon buttons, each featuring one or more of the mode’s four cartoon characters: Crocro, Cooki, Bobby and Lisa. The apps are both a digital playground, and an opportunity for children to gain digital literacy. Crocro Adventure, for example, introduces children to basic concepts of coding, harnessing the power of storytelling to keep young minds engaged.

Exploring the Wonderful World of Apps

In addition to these native apps, Samsung has optimized Kids Mode for approximately 2,500 more child-friendly third-party apps for learning and play, available for download via Galaxy Apps for Kids. Partnerships with some of the world’s most popular content providers, such as LEGO®^*, are sure to amuse, while other local partners such as ABC Mouse (US) and Kakao Kids (KR) have also joined them.

Galaxy Apps for Kids organizes apps by age group or category, for easy browsing of appropriate content. What’s more, to prevent little hands from making unintentional purchases, downloads are protected and must be authorized with the parent PIN code.

TV Support for Child-Friendly Media Platforms

As TVs become smarter and access to web-based content and streaming services becomes even more convenient, parents are eager to discover age-appropriate content that can be streamed on the TV screen. Since 2013, Samsung Smart TVs that can access the Samsung App Store have offered support for the YouTube Kids app^**, a platform that lets kids browse easily, with bigger buttons, simpler scrolling and content divided into four categories: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore. Support for LEGO® TV^** is also provided, allowing kids to stream their favorite LEGO® episodes on a TV, with convenient navigation organized by themes, stories and ages.

By developing smart, kid-friendly features and devices, such as Kids Mode, Galaxy Apps for Kids, Samsung Kids and support for age-appropriate TV apps, Samsung will continue its efforts to create a fun, educational and safe environment for kids.

* Availability may vary by location.

** Language and availability may vary by location.

That’s why we invited young people – from first-graders all the way to college age – to join us last week at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017 in San Francisco. We wanted to showcase some of the educational opportunities that can help children gain true digital literacy, and demonstrate Samsung’s passion for giving young people the future-proof skills they need – not just for the jobs market, but also to express themselves, solve the problems of tomorrow, and “do what you can’t”. Judging by their response, we believe we also inspired many of the developers at SDC 2017 to pass on their own enthusiasm for all things tech, from generation to generation.

Children enjoy a safe and educationally rich digital experience with Kids Mode and Samsung Kids on Galaxy tablets at SDC 2017

For parents, however, there is one must: the first digital experience of their children must happen in a safe but also educationally rich environment, and that’s why we set up the Samsung Kids Experience at SDC. In our interactive zone, we showed off Kids Mode, your children’s first digital – and safe – playground that makes learning easy. Within Kids Mode there are thousands of age-appropriate games, available to help children learn in a fun and interactive way. Kids Mode comes pre-loaded on Galaxy tablets launched from 2016 and available to download for free across 185 countries.  Consistent with the focus on learning in a safe digital environment, at SDC this year we also demonstrated the huge value of a complementary service, Samsung Kids, a US-focused membership program that teaches skills like math, languages, coding and more.

We also gave a flavor of Code Jam, which introduces children aged 5 to 10 to the magic of learning code. And the young kids visiting SDC 2017 just loved Crocro Adventure, a clever education app that teaches children coding through a game that makes them hunt for tasty treats for their Kids Mode characters. Using basic coding concepts to solve problems, Crocro Adventure has been popular ever since it was released with the Galaxy Tab A 2017; the app is now coming to more and more Galaxy devices.

Kids get hands on with Handy Code in a demonstration by staff at SDC 2017

As kids get older, there are plenty of programs that teach them how to code, but most are still stuck in a 20^th century technology environment: the PC. Fact is, the majority of children now live exclusively in a world of mobile computing; they rarely go near a PC. That’s why, at SDC we developed and presented a program called Handy Code: a coding environment for the mobile generation. With Handy Code, kids can learn coding using the tool they’re most familiar with: a smartphone or tablet, and using just their fingers. The feedback from students was clear: with Handy Code, learning to code is much easier – and faster – than they thought it would be.

The Solve for Tomorrow competition at SDC 2017 invited students to showcase solutions and applications they have developed

Teaching 21^st century skills also means to inspire the next generation to learn the STEAM skills – in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics – that modern economies so urgently need. In the US, we run Solve for Tomorrow for children in 6^th to 12th grade, where students learn that technology has a purpose and can tackle very immediate problems. We invited the winners of this year’s Solve for Tomorrow competition to share their achievements with all the developers at SDC 2017, and their exhibition was awesome. Among their innovative solutions was an app developed by students in New York that matched children from poor families that might go hungry with food from restaurants that was still fresh but would otherwise go to waste. A team from Nebraska developed software that helps farmers to use drones for highly targeted delivery of pesticides, which helps to protect both drinking water and the environment; and in Arizona, students developed a system that will save lives by using a clever sensor system that warns drivers when wildlife is near a road, to reduce the number of fatal collisions.

Young attendees at SDC 2017 take part in various workshops and experience Samsung’s latest devices firsthand

Boosting digital literacy has to go all the way to young adulthood and beyond, and that’s why we also invited 50 students from local high schools along with teachers and parents to join our Youth Track at SDC 2017. They had an opportunity to hear the keynotes and participate in a Gear 360 workshop, because it’s with Youth Track that we really hope to inspire young people for a rewarding career as developers and creators.

At SDC 2017, we showed young people that they can do something big with their digital skills, and even join Team Samsung in the future. Showing them the full range of internships and careers that Samsung can offer, we hope to have encouraged them to build their digital skills. Who knows: maybe one of the kids playing Crocro Adventure today may well deliver the breakthrough innovation of tomorrow.

Two years ago, Joris Verhoeff was working in the Customer Service Department at Samsung Electronics Benelux (SEBN), where he was constantly receiving phone calls from elderly customers who were asking for help in getting online and using various online services.

“Many of the seniors wanted to make video calls to their children and grandchildren. Some of them wanted to do online banking,” said Joris, who is now a sales manager at SEBN. “There are many things technology can do to simplify their lives, but it seemed like the seniors were being left behind.”

A recent study by Statistics Netherlands (CBS), a Dutch government agency, found approximately 75% of Dutch seniors aged 65 and over have never used social media, while Belgium’s Ministry of Economic Affairs found approximately 48% of Belgians of the same age group have never used any digital devices or apps.

So, Verhoeff approached his director about starting a volunteer training program, called Senior Training Days, to help seniors go online and integrate the likes of Facebook, Google and Skype into their daily lives.

Having initially begun in October 2013 with 10 SEBN volunteers and 20 seniors, the Senior Training Days have since gained significant traction and popularity. So far, more than 400 SEBN volunteers have traveled to 17 cities across the Netherlands and Belgium to train over 1,000 seniors. In 2014 alone, 75% of SEBN employees participated, logging over 1,600 training hours. The numbers continue to grow.

Most recently, SEBN celebrated Belgium’s 10th annual National Digital Week, the Belgian equivalent of the European Get Online Week, by organizing Senior Training Days in Ghent, Brussels-Diegem and Antwerp between April 20-30.

“The Belgian government wants to diminish the digital skills gap of senior citizens,” said Belgian Federal Vice Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, when he met with SEBN officials in Belgium. “It is important for senior citizens to get connected and stay connected. I would like to thank Samsung for this initiative, and I hope other companies will soon follow suit.”

During the training sessions, the 270 or so seniors were divided into groups of three according to their existing knowhow, and each group was led by one SEBN volunteer. The 3:1 student-to-teacher ratio allowed the volunteers to give personal attention to each senior, assessing the exact needs of each senior and accordingly tailoring the day’s lessons.

Each day, the seniors were trained in three overarching topics: how to use mobile devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets), how to use the internet (e.g. social media, e-mail, web browsing, VoIP, online banking) and security/privacy issues they should be aware of when going online. Prior to participating in the Senior Training Days, each SEBN volunteer is given training on how to teach these topics using a training manual.

“I’ve always wanted to Skype with my son who lives abroad, but I never knew how that worked,” said Daniel, 78, from Ghent. “Now, I finally know how it’s done and luckily it’s very easy. When I go home tonight, I’m going to try it out on my tablet.”

The day-long program has been complemented by the Big Senior Training Days, which are more comprehensive four-day sessions held annually in both countries. The first annual event took place in the Netherlands in November 2014, which involved around 400 seniors and 200 SEBN volunteers.

The Senior Training Days have been jointly organized with leading national senior citizen groups, namely ANBO in the Netherlands and Vlaamse Actieve Senioren (VLAS) in Belgium, which have over 100,000 and 30,000 members, respectively.

“We are very happy to organize Senior Training Days together with Samsung,” said Liane den Haan, the CEO of ANBO. “It is important to get seniors digitally connected with their children and grandchildren. Also, their improved digital skills can enable them to live more independently and hopefully prepare them to make use of digital health solutions in the near future.”