Voice challenged my screen-first habits. I designed Bixby concepts and interactions for third-party apps, across speaking, tapping and typing.
Role
Concepts, interaction design, prototypes and usability testing.
Collaboration
HQ South Korea, Samsung Research America and Bangalore.
Period
During my Samsung tenure, 2016–2018
Scope
Third-party apps Voice, touch and chat
TL;DR / Overview
Problem
Make Bixby useful in third-party apps across voice, touch and typing, including eyes-free moments.
Role
I developed concepts and interactions with Samsung’s teams in South Korea, the USA and Bangalore.
Surfaces
Voice-assistant and chat interfaces, exploring handoffs between speaking, tapping and typing.
Reach
Third-party app scenarios within Bixby; no project-specific audience count is available.
Result
I prototyped concepts, created high-fidelity screens, tested usability, recorded problems and followed up with delivery teams.
Status
Concept and interaction work for Bixby
01 / THE SHIFT
The task was familiar. The interaction wasn’t.
I explored how voice, touch and typing could make Bixby useful within third-party apps.
The listening state is part of the interface. Samsung product photography, shown here to ground the interaction context.
Screens suggest the next move. With voice, people start with an intention in their own words, not a menu item.
The challenge was imagining a voice-led, sometimes eyes-free experience, not simply writing conversational responses.
I had to let go of the visual structure I normally relied on.
02 / THE INTERACTION
Change the input. Keep the intention.
Voice is one route into a task. This model explores the handoff to a screen.
INTERACTION SKETCH
EXPLORING THE HANDOFFb.
Show my new emails.
A request has been captured. What should happen next?
Illustrative voice-input state. No microphone is used.
TRY THE INPUT MODES
Say the intent. Keep the next step clear.
Voice is useful when navigating the interface would add effort. The challenge is to make the assistant’s state and next action understandable.
Illustrative interaction sketch, not shipped Bixby UI. It uses no microphone, email connection or personal account.
03 / MY CONTRIBUTION
Make the idea clear. Then make it hold up.
I explored possibilities, prototyped interactions and tested where they broke.
CONCEPTS
Find useful possibilities.
I explored future possibilities for Bixby, asking where voice-led intelligence could help within third-party apps.
PROTOTYPES
Give the interaction a form.
I iterated voice-assistant and chat interfaces, using quick prototypes and high-fidelity screens to present, challenge and improve ideas.
TESTING
Close the loop on issues.
I tested Bixby’s usability, recorded problems and followed up with delivery teams.
One project. Several locations.
Prototypes grounded my discussions with HQ in South Korea, Samsung Research America in the USA, and the Bangalore team.
A new design muscle.
This was my first voice-led, sometimes eyes-free work: difficult to visualise, and a useful challenge to my screen-first habits.
04 / WHAT I CARRY FORWARD
The interface is only part of the conversation.
Without familiar visual cues, what does someone need to understand, decide or do next?
Prototyping and testing taught me to see interactions as intentions and responses, not just screens. My retained records do not establish which concepts shipped or include project-specific metrics.
Across voice, touch and typing, I now look for continuity: does the next step make sense, whichever mode someone uses?
