Samsung, LG Hires New Design Experts to Improve User Experience
Following in Google’s footsteps to bring about a “prettier” Android, Samsung and LG have hired design experts to improve the user interface and experience on their handsets – including those with Android. Specifically, Samsung looked to former professor of visual communication design for Kookmin University in Seoul – Jung Ji-hong – to help with TouchWiz UI on both Android and Bada handsets (his official title with the company is Vice President of the Mobile Design Group).
LG, on the other hand, took former dean of KAIST’s (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) industrial design department Lee Kun-pyo to do the same thing for their handsets (his title is Vice President of Design Management Center). While many have their own reservations on TouchWiz, S-Class UI, or any custom user interface on top of Android, it’s clear that Samsung and LG themselves feel they’re not providing the best experience.
I personally don’t see an issue with their current offerings, but I’m also one of those design-crippled “weirdos” that actually prefer the look of Vanilla Android (even in its 1.1 days). It’ll be quite interesting to see how these new additions to each respective manufacturer’s staff will shape their next round of flagship Android phones.
[Korea Herald via Unwired View]