Samsung Electronics is reimagining smart homes through Home AI, a new vision of smart living that understands user needs and delivers hyper-personalized experiences.

Samsung Newsroom attended the final Tech Forum session, titled “Understanding Home, Understanding You: Rethinking the Role of the Home in the Era of AI,” to examine the transformative potential of AI in smart home innovation and the need for collaboration to deliver on the promise of Home AI.

▲ (From left) Tobin Richardson, Jaeyeon Jung, Patrick Chomet and moderator Carolina Milanesi

Smart UI as the Gateway to Home AI

User interface (UI) is a critical element in the Home AI experience, serving as the bridge between users and their mobile devices, TVs, home appliances and more.

▲ Patrick Chomet from Samsung Electronics

“UI is a key area in the age of AI,” said Patrick Chomet, Mobile Strategy Advisor at Samsung Electronics. “With the advent of LLM multimodal AI, a big shift has taken place in User Interface (UI), enabling people to get things done in natural and simple ways such as gesture, voice or text interaction. Users no longer needs to understand devices, rather the device should understand the user’s intent.”

He explained how intelligent user interfaces not only enable more intuitive interactions but also procure deeper understandings of user context and intent, which brands can use to optimize in-home solutions.

▲ Jaeyeon Jung from Samsung Electronics

“We have implemented an intuitive and concise UI for various SmartThings features,” said Jaeyeon Jung, Executive Vice President and Head of SmartThings Team at Samsung Electronics.

She engaged the audience with examples of the latest SmartThings functions including Quick Remote, a feature that enables users to control their TVs with a connected Galaxy smartphone; 3D Map View, a feature that allows users to manage their entire home and check energy consumption through Galaxy smartphones and tablets; and Home Insight, a feature that provides timely home reports and delivers personalized recommendations to users.

The Role of Platforms and Standardization in Shaping Smart Homes

The panelists then delved into the efforts required to make Home AI a reality. Moderator Carolina Milanesi, CEO and founder of Heart of Tech and President at Creative Strategies, introduced the topics of integrated AI platforms and industry standards to guide the discussion.

“As we scale our AI platform to reach across applications, services and multiple devices, the experience can be optimized around the user,” said Chomet. “User context and richer insights can be gathered to deliver relevant and truly personalized experiences.”

▲ Jaeyeon Jung and Patrick Chomet from Samsung Electronics

“The SmartThings platform is 10 years in the making and while the concept of a smart home isn’t new, AI technology is what is truly creating the intelligent home” added Jung, highlighting how a consistent and connected AI platform empowers users to enjoy effortless convenience from anywhere. “The transition from a device-centric philosophy to an AI-powered, user-centric one provides users with a personalized, connected experience that feels like home — no matter where they are.”

▲ Tobin Richardson from the CSA

Tobin Richardson, President and CEO of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), noted the importance of industry standards in building an ecosystem in which devices can be connected simply, securely and seamlessly.

“Building blocks for AI in the home are grounded in seamless connectivity, with AI relying on device interoperability to thrive. A common language like Matter enables devices to communicate effortlessly, setting the stage for AI innovation,” he said, highlighting that the goal is not just to create a perfect connected experience but to foster a robust and trustworthy industry while making smart homes more accessible and reliable.

“Alliance Members like Samsung are doing remarkable work in the AI space, showcasing how technology can adapt to users’ needs, creating a smarter and more personalized living experience,” said Richardson, reaffirming the company’s dedication to collaboration. “I am continually inspired to see how these advancements are shaping the future of connected homes.”

A More Personalized, Secure Smart Home

Addressing concerns regarding the challenge of providing personalized experiences in homes shared by multiple people, Chomet spoke on how AI technology can understand intent and context to provide an optimized experience for each user. He emphasized that Samsung will innovate for multi-device connectivity, rather than individual products.

▲ Patrick Chomet, Jaeyeon Jung and Tobin Richardson

Jung also cited practical cases of how Samsung Health and SmartThings are connecting data and devices to provide hyper-personalized health experiences. For example, Samsung Health and SmartThings can optimize sleep environments by automatically adjusting temperature and humidity based on users’ sleep patterns and the environmental conditions they live in. When Galaxy devices recognize that users have been exercising, SmartThings will activate appliances such as air conditioners and washing machines upon their return home.

▲ Carolina Milanesi poses questions to the panelists.

The discussion then touched on the critical role of security and the protection of personal information in smart homes.

“Samsung places the highest priority on security in every aspect,” said Jung. She highlighted how Knox Matrix safeguards the smart home ecosystem while Knox Vault protects hardware. “By integrating the expansive SmartThings ecosystem and AI with the robust security of Samsung Knox, users can enjoy personalized smart living experiences safely.”

“With more than eight out of ten consumers stating that security is ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to them, security and privacy protection are key factors,” said Richardson, echoing the importance of trust in connected devices. “Matter, our next-generation smart home standard, is built with security in mind and offers a level of trust and clarity users can rely on.”

The Home AI session highlighted the advancements AI brings to creating smarter, safer and more adaptive living spaces. By combining hyper-personalized experiences with advanced security measures, Samsung’s innovations are paving the way for a new era of intelligent, connected homes that integrate into every aspect of daily life.

This is where the device’s user interface (UI) comes into play, with the experience of the users in interacting with it referred to as the user experience (UX). In 2018, Samsung introduced an improved version of its standard user interface and software overlay called ‘One UI’.

As well as working to make them intuitive, consistent, and effective, UX designers try to base user interface interactions on the way we use physical objects in the wider world to promote familiarity. For example, users turn a digital page in an e-book just like they would a physical page, or slide their cards up in the Samsung Pay app in a way that mimics how they would remove a card from their wallet. But what do UX designers do when there is no way to base interactions on real-world actions? Samsung Newsroom sat down with the designers of One UI to find out.

An Interface to Help You Stay on Task

The concept of One UI started with the idea to try and help the busy users of today stay focused by simplifying their interactions with their smartphones. One UI designer Soeyoun Yim explained that the process of designing the interface was undertaken based on the concept of ‘everyday simplicity’, saying that, “One UI was designed to help users focus on important tasks by eliminating distractions.”

Now, One UI has been further developed into ‘One UI 2’, which was unveiled at the end of last year. This upgraded interface incorporates the icons from One UI in new styles and configurations, and includes revamped colors and movements. In addition, One UI 2 makes the icons more conspicuous with distinct color tones and motions, for instance when the ‘settings’ icon trembles to let users know that an update is underway.

‘Simplicity’ – to Help You Focus on What Matters

Simplicity was the number one priority for the designers when developing One UI 2. To that end, the pop-up screens that appear at the top and bottom of the screen were made more compact and simplistic to keep users from getting distracted while making use of features.

The camera app has also been simplified to ensure that the basic operation of the app isn’t impeded, and prevent users from getting distracted while they’re taking their picture. Taehee Hwang, the UX designer responsible for the camera app, outlined how this makes the user experience more straightforward. “The basic photo and video modes can be accessed at the bottom of the screen, while special modes such as the Food and Night modes can be accessed by selecting or swiping through to ‘More’,” she related. “This simplifies what is displayed on the screen so that users can concentrate on taking their picture.”

‘Comfort’ – So Your Eyes and Fingers Can Take It Easy

Making user interactions more comfortable and facilitating one-handed use were also at the fore of the development of One UI 2. Whereas One UI designated the top and bottom sections of the screen as the ‘viewing’ and ‘interaction’ areas respectively, One UI 2 allows the majority of tasks to be completed within the lower area of the screen. Moreover, for actions that require interaction in the top part of the screen, unnecessary finger movements were minimized to improve comfort and convenience.

The same principles were applied to the keyboard, making it possible for users to perform other tasks while keeping their fingers within the keyboard area. For example, by long-pressing the space bar, users can now control the position of the cursor from within the keyboard window without having to interact with the main text body. In addition, users can swipe left or right with two fingers to undo and redo actions, and adjust the dimensions of their keyboard to better match the size of their hands.

The ‘dark mode’ feature has been shown to reduce eyestrain, and One UI 2 has expanded the number of apps within which it can be applied. “Dark mode has been expanded to a number of apps that it wasn’t previously accessible in,” said Yim, “To make it more comfortable to use devices in the dark we are also applying a darkening filter to background wallpaper displays.” Yim also spoke to the designers’ efforts to further ease eyestrain, relating that, “An algorithm has been incorporated that analyzes the background image on the lock screen and automatically shows the time in the color that will show up best against that backdrop.”

‘Convenience’ – Streamlining Rich Experiences

The ‘Single take’ feature comes with One UI 2 on the Galaxy S20 and is capable of using Ultra wide, Live focus, and short video features to deliver various photo styles and results, all with a single shot. “We started by asking ourselves two questions,” explained Hwang, “Firstly, how can we make sure the users enjoy the moment? And secondly, how can we deliver a variety of results without requiring the user to do more than take a simple, standard shot?”

While explaining what went into developing the feature, Hwang explained that, “Since this feature was to be introduced on the Galaxy S20, we decided that a help message should be displayed when the user entered Single take mode. Moreover, to allow the user to view a wide range of results simultaneously on the same screen we introduced a new kind of viewer.”

The video calling feature was also further upgraded with the integration of ‘Google Duo,’ Google’s simple, high-quality video calling app. Sueyeon Lee, the designer in charge of integrating Google Duo and One UI, elaborated on the designers’ efforts to improve convenience, saying, “Our goal was to make the user experience more convenient by making the features of Google Duo the default for Galaxy devices.”

Lee went on to highlight some other user experiences specific to Galaxy devices, remarking that, “5G video calls have been brought to smartphones for the first time with this integration, allowing users to experience FHD video calls and use AR emojis and wide screen mode within their video calls.” Lee finished by saying, “We will continue to develop advanced, integrated communication experiences linked to the phone, message and contact apps.”

The Galaxy Z Flip represents a totally new style of device with a revolutionary format. Thus, the question of how to provide top-tier usability and convenience on the new smartphone required the designers to think outside the box. Hyungwoo Shin, the designer responsible for developing the Galaxy Z Flip’s UI, outlined the development process, saying, “This is a whole new kind of device. We didn’t have access to any sample devices to which we could apply the new UI, so we had to print out screens, attach them to mock-up products and fold and unfold the devices to figure out how best to apply One UI.” In designing this special UI, the designers incorporated the ‘cover display’ aspect, which expands the interface onto the small screen on the outside of the phone that enables users to check the time, read notifications and take selfies when the phone is folded.

Special effort was put into developing the UI for the Galaxy Z Flip’s ‘Flex Mode,’ a feature that divides the screen into two halves when the phone is half-folded and set at a 90-degree angle. Shin explained how the design team catered to this unique form factor, saying that, “Designing a UI that would be suitable for a phone being used in Flex Mode presented a real challenge. We ended up creating a new layout that reflected the UIs seen on the foldable phones of the past.”

‘Accessibility’ – Fair and Available to Everyone

‘Accessibility’ means how easy to use and available a device’s features are to a wide range of users. The designers of One UI 2 worked to provide an equally accessible experience to everyone – regardless of age or disability – with features such as high contrast themes, which improve usability for visually impaired users. Samsung additionally consulted with differently-abled users to receive feedback on accessibility within the UI and to hear the users’ ideas on where there was room for improvement.

As a result, color adjustments and high-contrast features were implemented within the UI to expand usability to more differently-abled users. These changes also make it easier for users to access specialty features within the UI like Light Sensing, which detects nearby lights and informs the user of their status with vibrations, and Live Transcribe, which uses Bixby to transcribe audio messages and nearby noises.

One UI to Satisfy the Individual User

So, what’s next for the One UI design team? Since the first and second incarnations of One UI were about establishing the foundation of the interface, the next steps will focus on catering more to individual users. “Going forward, One UI will offer more customized content,” related Yim. “Active customization will be brought to bear to improve the individual user experience.”

As they continue their development work, the One UI designers will keep working to provide the best possible environment for Galaxy users, while ensuring that the interface is inclusive and makes inconvenience a thing of the past.

And now, they have one. Samsung’s One UI is the company’s most simple and streamlined UI yet, built from the ground up to help users focus on what matters most. One UI’s intuitive design fosters convenient interactions, while its clean aesthetic minimizes clutter to make viewing your screen more comfortable. Follow along as we examine the innovative interface in more detail.

Natural Interactions

One UI’s streamlined structure reflects a deep understanding of how smartphone users interact with their devices today.

The interface makes navigating big-screen phones simple by effectively splitting the display in half. With One UI, the top half of the screen is for viewing content, while the lower half is for interacting with your device.

Freeing up space at the top of the screen creates a more balanced, visually comfortable aesthetic, while focusing interactions on the lower half enhances usability. Key tabs, action buttons and pop-ups are easy to reach so you can access them – and finish your task – faster.

Focus on the Task at Hand

One UI’s minimalist design eliminates unnecessary distractions to make it easier to focus on one thing at a time.

One UI’s ‘focus blocks’ help users focus on important information by presenting content in a manner that’s visually comfortable. The images on the right demonstrate how focus blocks streamline the Bixby Home screen.

The interface pares down the amount of information on display in order to offer users a more focused and fluid experience. It does this with subtle design enhancements like ‘focus blocks’, which direct your eyes to the content that matters without overwhelming you with information.

With One UI’s streamlined approach to app management, when a user launches an app, instead of filling the screen with functions that may not be useful at that particular moment, One UI keeps things simple, displaying only the functions and info the user needs to complete their task. This means that, for example, once a user enters a phone number into the dial pad, menu options unrelated to entering a phone number vanish, and new options to create a contact or start a video call appear.

A Comfortable View

Because we spend so much time on our phones, it’s important that their screens are easy on the eyes.

Visual comfort is especially important when it’s dark, which is why Samsung built a customizable Night Mode into One UI. Easily accessible and incorporated across the entire interface, Night Mode, once enabled, adjusts the screen’s tone, brightness and contrast to offer users a more focused and comfortable viewing experience.

The interface’s spacious, orderly design changes how users view their device. Clear and intuitive visuals maximize readability, fostering an overall look that’s immersive and more comfortable to take in.

One Beautiful UI

Samsung carefully refined One UI’s design with a focus on beauty and consistency.

The rounded corners of the interface’s app icons and focus blocks are perfect examples of this attention to detail. Standardizing these design elements not only enhances the UI’s aesthetic appeal, it also creates pleasing consistency with the rounded corners of Galaxy devices.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check back soon for more details on One UI’s user-centric approach to smartphone management, as well as updates on the interface’s wide release.

Tizen’s SDK will be making a new start as Tizen Studio 1.0 on September 1, 2016.

Installing the new Tizen Studio allows developers to select necessary platforms and profiles. It will also allow developers to experience a fast and stable development environment, as well as a new UX and UI.

Applications for the recently released Gear S3 can be developed using Tizen Studio 1.0.

The existing Tizen SDK was released in accordance with the Tizen platform. Since there was an SDK program for each platform, this meant developers had to install several SDK programs if they wished to develop for several platforms. Therefore, it was often difficult for some to maintain, and managing related updates was also time-consuming.

Accordingly, following the release of the Tizen 2.4 SDK, attempts were made to integrate the whole process. Starting with Tizen Studio 1.0, users can select and install necessary platforms and profiles with a one-time installation. In addition, Tizen Studio has been made stable and lightweight through a platform version-up, and its usability has been improved through the overall improvement of both its UX and its UI.

From now on, version control will be used separately for the Tizen platform and Tizen SDK, and Tizen Studio can be downloaded from the Tizen Developer site (developer.tizen.org).

Improved Development Environment in Tizen Studio 1.0

1. Launching tools: Installer, Uninstaller, and Package Manager

While the old Tizen SDK involved a lot of unnecessary information and difficult error handling, the new Tizen Studio environment only conveys information necessary for easy development.

The information structure that made it difficult (beginning with the installation process) has been simplified, and heavy graphics have been scaled down.

2. Developing tools: IDE perspective theme, Project Wizard, Certificate Manager, and Menu and tool icons

Before the improvement, application development and testing were possible only after a seven-step certification process. After this, developers also needed to go through an additional Samsung certification process. With the new Tizen Studio, however, applications can be developed and tested without additional certification. A Samsung Certificate menu has also been integrated in the Certificate Manager section.

3. UI tools: UI Builder, Component Designer, and EDC Editor

 Before the new improvements, usability was low since each UI tool had a different UX. With the new Tizen Studio, however, consistent UX and GUI have now been applied. Features have also been rearranged in order of common usage, allowing UI applications be developed easily, based on WYSIWYG.

4. Testing tools: Emulator

 Before Tizen Studio, complex menu names and screen layouts in the previous SDK incarnation made it difficult for users to understand the emulator environment. In the new Tizen Studio, a consistent UX has been applied, a device template feature has been added and the filter feature for each profile has been improved.

5. Testing tools: Dynamic Analyzer

The layout of each feature has been improved and the graphic elements have been redefined. In addition, the layout scalability has been secured for new features (such as memory profiling and CLI).

Other improvements in Tizen application development environment

With the release of Tizen Studio 1.0, Tizen has reinforced its developer site content, improved its search engine, added 50 new improved-quality sample applications and enhanced its existing sample applications.

Tizen continues to strive to provide an application development environment that satisfies the needs of developers as the platform continues to evolve.