Share Experience
Uncovered customer perceptions of Samsung’s sharing features and translated insights into opportunities to drive growth and adoption.
Organization
Samsung Electronics
Team
UX Designers x2
UX Manager
Role
UX Designer/Researcher
Timeline
1-2 months
The Customer Problem
Samsung customers don’t actively use Samsung’s sharing feature, in a survey conducted by Samsung’s MNOUX team, its sharing feature wasn’t ranked within the top 5 in sharing content while iOS AirDrop is ranked #1 among users. This project was to discover the reasoning and any specific pain points in why it’s not actively used.
Project Context
Sharing content like photos, videos, and files has become second nature for most users. On iOS devices, AirDrop is the go-to method—fast, familiar, and widely used. But did you know that Android and Samsung users have their own versions of this seamless sharing experience? Enter Nearby Share and Quick Share—two powerful yet lesser-known alternatives that offer similar functionality for non-iOS ecosystems.
Nearby Share
A built in android feature that allows users to quickly and easily share files, link, and other content between nearby Android devices, Chromebooks or Windows PCs.
Quick Share
Quick Share is a file-sharing feature built by Samsung and integrated into their mobile devices. It allows customers to share files between Samsung devices.
Challenge
One of the earlier challenges we uncovered was the ability for customers to identify and understand which features work between which devices. We created a matrix to help communicate with future participants when/what devices use which sharing feature.
Feature Flow
As a beginning part in better understanding Samsung's current sharing experience, we conducted an audit and outlined the general sharing experience flow for each feature.
User Surveys
Our team created two separate surveys to collect data on users' current sharing experience. We focused our questions on factors that could impact a user's sharing ability such as social groups, age, knowledge, experience, connections, etc. The data would then help us identify different user segments and screen for additional user interviews and usability testing.
User Segments
We broke down participants into 2 primary segments with 1 segment having 3 subdivisions based on external conditions that could impact their usage of Samsung’s sharing features.
User Interviews
We conducted 10-12 user interviews, all of which were performed over Webex calls due to COVID-19 restrictions. Within this process, we collected detailed insights on how users currently share content and their current experience with Samsung's native sharing features. Due to Samsung NDA and security policy, capturing or recording of any kind is prohibited.
Usability Testing
As a follow-up, we conducted quick usability tests focused on Samsung’s sharing features. Participants walked us through their typical sharing process and shared feedback on the current share bottom sheet. For those unfamiliar with the features, we provided a brief walkthrough to demonstrate how they work.
Analysis
After all interviews, we synthesized the data, notes, feedback and compiled them into an affinity map to help draw common themes, patterns, and pain points.
Patterns and Trends
Based on the affinity map, we compile and group 6 key insights from similar notes from our interviewees. These 6 key findings would be the primary base of our report in the next stage.
Discoverability
The sharing feature wasn’t easily noticed or discoverable when users opened up the share sheet.
Familiarity
Many customers simply weren’t familiar with the feature enough to use it or knew how it worked so they didn’t bother.
Technical Challenges
There were some technical challenges outside the customers control where they couldn’t utilized the feature.
Overwhelming Options
There were too many options for the customer and they weren’t sure which one to use so they lean towards what they were familiar with.
Social Groups
Some external factors did impact the usage of the Samsung’s sharing features such as friends and family devices. Being the features are device specific and being surrounded by iOS users it wouldn’t be beneficial for the customer.
Location and Data
External factors also influenced how users engaged with Samsung’s sharing features. Proximity to another compatible device played a key role, and many users noted that being on Wi-Fi was important due to their cautious approach to data usage.
Results, Report, and Readout
After compiling our findings, we created a report and presentation for the UX team, upper management, and Samsung HQ. The report included recommendations to enhance the sharing experience and improve feature visibility.
Due to Samsung’s security policies and NDA, I’m unable to share any designs or documentation related to proprietary software.
What’s next?
With the release of Android 12 and One UI 4.0, Samsung has updated their share bottom sheet and further refined how users can use Quick Share and Link Share.
Learnings and Reflections
Learnings
From the project itself, my biggest takeaway was how familiarity, timing, and convenience play big roles in what apps users use to share content.
From a research perspective, I've gained a greater understanding of how to identify groups of users and how their individual experiences could remain vastly different when sharing content.
Relections
Being one of my early projects at Samsung it was a great opportunity for me in understanding Samsung's products and how users approach sharing content.
Interested in this project?
Under Samsung’s NDA, I can’t fully disclose any designs and or working technology software.
If you are interested in learning more about this project and my design process, please feel free to contact me.