Samsung
Samsung
Timeline
Jan - June 2025
My Role
User Research
User Experience
Trend Forecasting
Qualitative Analysis
Quantitative Analysis
Competitor Benchmarking
Collaborators
Rohit Tambe
Rishabh Johri
Tools
Figma
FigJam
Adobe Suite
OVERVIEW
What should watching television feel like in 2030?
The brief was open: explore future immersive experiences for big screens. To give it direction, I studied how display technology, competitor products and human-computer interaction were evolving, alongside how people watched alone and together. The challenge was to connect those changes to needs that would still matter in 2030, and turn that evidence into experiences worth pursuing.
DIRECTIONS
Three ways the living room could become more responsive
The outcome is a set of 2030 experience concepts. Together, they explore how a TV could surround you, understand your context, and support the people watching with you. Each direction combines a shared screen with personal, wearable interaction.
01
The experience that surrounds you
Cinema, live sport and ambient moments that extend beyond the screen.
02
The experience that understands you
Choices and controls that adapt to attention, routine and context.
03
The experience that connects you
Shared experiences that make room for different people and needs.
RESEARCH
Look beyond the television to understand where it is going
A TV-only competitor scan would show what brands were shipping, but miss where immersion was being explored, and whether people wanted it at home. I studied three connected landscapes through the same four lenses: hardware, software and smart systems, emerging breakthroughs, and content.
TRAJECTORY
Distilling research into 12 domains that map the current state of televisions
I combined the landscape study with interviews with people close to emerging technology, using a consistent set of eight questions. I then clustered the evidence into 12 domains. Each domain connected user expectations and mental models to behaviour and current innovation, making it possible to trace an opportunity back to its evidence.
Horizontal axis: who is it for?
From personal, close-range experiences to shared, room-scale environments. Neither end was the destination on its own.
Vertical axis: how does it respond?
From static experiences that need repeated input to experiences that can anticipate and adapt to context.
EVOLUTION
Solving for the vertical axis
To understand adaptive interaction, I widened the scan beyond entertainment. I grouped emerging work into six clusters: neural and bodily input, ambient anticipation, agentic autonomy, spatial computing, experiential environments, and generative expression. Across them, two different intentions kept appearing.
Invisible UX
Technology reduces the work around an experience: fewer decisions, fewer steps, and less attention spent operating a system.
Enhanced UX
Technology adds something people could not otherwise experience: a stronger sense of presence, expression or connection.
SERVICE & CAPABILITY
Solving for the horizontal axis
Forecasting a new input method is not enough. I mapped how people connect with themselves, with others, and across generations, then defined five enduring needs. For each, I traced current innovations and interaction channels toward possible 2030 modalities.
Intangible needs that govern interaction around televisions
1
Immersive Autonomy
2
Mood & Attention Regulation
3
Consensus & Cohesion
4
Cinematic Presence
5
Inclusive Participation
Modality Readiness Index
My first draft relied on my assessment. To compare the modalities more consistently, I used a 22-question, binary yes/no survey with 42 respondents. The questions covered six dimensions, balancing human fit with participants’ assessment of maturity and value.
Shortlisted Modalities
I scored “yes” as 1 and “no” as 0, aggregated the responses, and normalized the result against the 22-point maximum. The Modality Readiness Index helped compare the candidates. It captures this study’s assessment, not a probability of future adoption or an engineering readiness test.
Vision Intelligence
Imagine a future where every glance, expression, and presence in the room is understood, letting the system see what you need before you say a word.
Intent Sensing
Imagine a future where your thoughts and emotions are mapped which lets the system adapt to your cognitive capability.
WEARABLE ADOPTION
Choosing the enabler after defining its job
I studied Samsung’s wearable evolution and compared six form factors: smartphone, smart ring, earbuds, smart glasses, neural or BCI devices, and smartwatch. The comparison used ten criteria derived from the experience needs, so the choice would not depend on whichever device felt most futuristic.
Phone
Smart Glasses
Earbuds
Smart Rings
BCI
Smartwatch
1
A device already on wrist, sensing, & paired to the screen it will serve, inheriting a installed base no new form factor could build by 2030.
2
Intent Sensing requires no new sensors, only new interpretation of metrics the watch already reads every minute of the day
3
Wrist is where brain's commands to the hand become readable without implants, turning gesture to precise, context-aware control
DESIGN DECISIONS
Making the future specific enough to examine
The research produced eight technology signals and four interaction patterns. I used a framework to carry each one towards 2030: trace its direction, identify what could enable it, consider how the interaction would evolve, and define whose need it would serve.
Trajectory
Capability
Evolution
Service
2030
Opportunity
Where is a domain already heading?
Which modalities could enable it?
Should the technology recede or enhance?
What human need would this serve, and in what way?
A concrete future opportunity comes out at the end.
DIRECTION 01
Immersion should be something people can control
A film, a live match and an idle room ask for very different levels of presence. I designed how the experience begins, how much it asks of the viewer, and when it should recede.
Flow 1
A film you stand inside
Flow 2
The stadium in the room
Flow 3
The room that disappears
Make automatic comfort easy to overrule
I kept depth and intensity in the playback controls and let the watch override automatic easing. The system explains when it lowers intensity, and a manual setting stays held. A comfort estimate should remain correctable by the person experiencing it.
Keep celebration off the picture
I moved goal celebrations into the room and onto the watch, keeping the live picture clear. When someone steps away, the wrist alert expands to include the score and scorer. The same event needs less explanation when you are watching, and more when you are not.
Information density changes with context
The morning surface brings calendar, commute and weather together for a quick glance before leaving. The evening layout gives fewer, more personal cues room to breathe: resume a song, return to a comfort show, acknowledge a small win. I changed the hierarchy and spacing to suit what each moment asks of the viewer.
Quiet states matter as much as immersive ones
At the credits, the film folds back into the screen. At half-time, the room’s effects settle as conversation takes over. Between sessions, the surface becomes artwork, photographs or simply the wall. I treated these quieter states as part of the experience, so immersion would not demand the room’s attention indefinitely.
DIRECTION 02
Adapt without interrupting
Choosing, getting interrupted and reaching for a control are small moments that can make watching feel like work. These flows explore where the system could remove that effort, while leaving its suggestions easy to ignore.
Flow 4
The evening it already knew
Flow 5
Nothing missed, nothing nagged
Flow 6
Control without leaving the story
Reduce load between choosing & watching
For a tired evening, I offered a short shelf of lighter choices with a reason for each recommendation. Selecting one goes straight into playback; dismissing the shelf returns to home. This removes the app, profile and episode navigation from the suggested route, without making the suggestion compulsory.
Help with interruptions without creating another
I designed the pause around the moment someone leaves, with quiet confirmation on the watch and no acknowledgement required. Repeated divided attention can prompt an optional lighter suggestion. Help should not become another thing demanding a response.
Let input determine the navigation
A top bar works for free pointing, but becomes harder to reach with a remote after scrolling down. A side rail stays accessible through directional presses, at the cost of horizontal space. I used both: the layout changes with the input, also making the active control method visible.
DIRECTION 03
Make shared viewing fair for everyone
A shared screen does not mean shared comfort, preferences or devices. I worked through what should change when others join, what should stay personal, and how someone in another home could genuinely take part.
Flow 7
The room that rearranges itself
Flow 8
Deciding, and feeling, together
Set the shared limit based on the most sensitive viewer
When others join, the system first offers to adapt the session. If accepted, shared depth and intensity follow the most sensitive viewer’s comfort threshold. Averaging preferences could still overwhelm a child. Sound can then be tailored to individual seats, keeping personal preferences within a comfortable shared experience.
Lead with transparency
I made the group queue explain each recommendation: shared interest, a choice that balances the room, or someone else’s turn. A blended recommendation alone would hide whose preferences it served. Visible reasons give the group something they can understand and discuss before deciding together.
Share the moment instantaneously without turning it into a call
I used a brief arrival notice instead of a persistent video tile, then let people send a gentle haptic pulse during a shared moment. This keeps attention on the film while giving a distant loved one a way to be felt. The interaction supports watching with someone, rather than watching them watch.
USER TESTING
Would this future fit the homes it is meant for?
After the Samsung handoff, my jury encouraged a stronger India perspective. While I took that advice with a grain of salt, it did make me curious, and I ended up following that question independently, using focus group discussions and a survey to examine adoption attitudes across Indian households.
Adoption Map
This map is an exploration of the scenarios and their assumptions: what felt useful, desirable or difficult to bring into a home, in the context of region, family type, consumer type, age, gender and personas. Here each bubble is one of the eight flows, placed by how broadly it is liked (right) and how much it divides people (up). Pick a lens using the dropdown to see which group each flow reaches (the threads and the endpoints below).
The buyer may not wear the watch
A shared TV purchase does not guarantee that every viewer uses the proposed personal device. This raised the importance of remote-based alternatives.
Sensing changes the trust question
Awareness of a room or person can be useful and intrusive at the same time. Clear consent and control need to be part of the experience.
Everyday value matters
Quiet, practical assistance gave people another way into the concept beyond spectacular immersion. The usefulness of a normal evening matters too.
REFLECTIONS
What I learned
Navigating ambiguity and going from 0 to 1
A 2030 brief could not offer certainty. I learned to make decisions by identifying what the evidence supported, what I was extrapolating, and which assumptions the concept depended on.
An insight has to change a decision
My mentor challenged the depth of my synthesis. I learned to move past reporting a trend and explain what it meant for a person, an experience and the next design choice.