Samsung Display Icons
Design Systems
Focus
Design Systems
Industry
Consumer & Industry Electronics
Timeline
December 2023
5 days
Role
UI Designer
Design System Fundamentals
Design systems are collections of reusable components, patterns, and guidelines that ensure consistency and efficiency in creating digital products. They evolve through user feedback, design trend analysis, and platform updates to meet changing needs and technologies.
Overview
This project aimed to update Samsung's system icons for their One UI 6 design system, giving a more contemporary look balanced with brand recognition and user familiarity.
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User needs: User feedback on Samsung community forums revealed a desire for icon personalization, which indicated that the current icon style may be out of date.
Business goals: With the release of One UI 6, introducing a refreshed icon set can further enhance the user experience and reinforce Samsung's commitment to design innovation.
Design trends: This project focused on modernizing the aesthetic of One UI 6 icons while retaining a strong visual connection to the existing set, ensuring familiarity for users.
Design Approach
My design approach involved researching current icon design systems and analyzing those various styles, ultimately leading to designing a slightly modified version that complements Samsung's icon designs. This redesign aimed to prioritize Design System Alignment, Modern Design Incorporation, and User Familiarity while still retaining Samsung’s unique system icons design that has remained unchanged for years.
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Goal 1
Align with the Design System: Making sure the updated system icons remain instantly recognizable as part of the Samsung brand.
Goal 2
Embrace modern Design Trends: Refresh the icon style to reflect an updated design aesthetic that still intuitively reflects an Android feel.
Goal 3
Maintain User Familiarity: Ensure icons visually complement other UI components, keeping to a unified aesthetic across screens.
To ensure the refresh resonated with users, I turned to the Samsung Community Forum for insights. This research also provided validation to continue the project as an exercise in Design Systems. These quotes highlight key desires.
mrStah wrote "Dear @Samsung in the future update of One UI 6 I would love to have the option to change the shape of the icons without installing any annoying themes on my phone...
SuperOvni wrote "You should allow to change the icons to circular shape, there must be uniformity throughout the experience, there are functions with circular icons and other not.
CarlosHawaii996 wrote "Does anyone know how can I change the Icon Shape to Round or Circle like Galaxy Tab S8, in Google Pixel....?
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Design Process
This design exercise involved some exploration and extensive refinement, with 5 to 6 iterations before achieving the final icon style. I began by researching current iconography trends, specifically iOS and Google, which initially led me to iterate on a more iOS-inspired aesthetic. However, quickly discovering Samsung's existing Good Lock app, which allows for other variations of icon customizations, I shifted focus to create a more distinctive style. This involved some final experimentation with the background's edge treatments.
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Deliverables
One UI app icons have square backgrounds with smooth rounded corners and outlines. Rounded squares allow enough room to showcase easily-recognizable symbols, while the curved corners make the icons seem softer and more inviting. As an option (not shown here), the user can choose to select an App Icon style in settings, between the default design and an enhanced design.
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Conclusion
This design exercise highlights the value of revisiting and refreshing design elements within a system. As user preferences and design trends evolve, Samsung's display icons can be updated while maintaining their original feel. Further exploration could involve user testing to gather feedback on the proposed stylistic changes and ensure they resonate with users.
