COMMENT AND OPINION | Minhyeok Bu
MINHYEOK BU OPINION
Samsung’s appliances are increasingly becoming smart – not smart enough to prepare and cook dinner without you, but it’s getting there. Vicki Evans spoke to Minhyeok Bu, vice-president and head of the kitchen design group at Samsung’s digital appliances business, to discuss the innovations in the kitchen
Function over form
kitchen, dining and living room are all integrated. It is all about how you integrate the space and how you diversify the use of the area. Home appliances should align to those types of spaces. We value advanced technology, but we don’t directly force this message upon consumers. It should be implicit within why they are using the products, so it is something that is internally transmitted rather than directly forced upon them. For instance, when I design home appliances, I think about functions that enable consumers to cook in the ways they need, rather than develop a product that only caters to a particular scenario.
Q & A
We value advanced
technology, but we don’t force it on consumers
Q: What are the current appliance market trends? A: The current trend is to not focus on one single unit but to consider the kitchen and the lifestyle of consumers as a whole. Also, we think deeply about what the customer values and their needs. We’re not just focusing on the decoration, but on the form and how to refi ne home appliances. We look at the consumer throughout the continuous process of refi ning and, in the end, what remains is the essence of design.
Q: What is the design process like from start to fi nish? A: The design process has three stages. First, we research cultural and social trends. Second, is the prototype platform, where we look into consumer needs and what they require and value in terms of products. Thirdly, we look into affordability that matches the consumer’s buying power.
Q: How do you design a kitchen around appliances? A: We don’t tend to focus on a single home appliance in relation to the kitchen, but we see kitchen design as defi ning a space, which is a trend at the moment. A
Q: Has the massive adoption of smartphones changed the relationship people have with smart home appliances? A: Of course, I think of smart technology in terms of design. If you think about the consumer journey while they are cooking, smart technology can add valuable functions. We always want to deliver something practical for consumers. For instance, when we think of a recipe and the time it takes to measure out ingredients, and I think about how can I apply that to apps. We think of consumers’ needs and fi gure out technical aids. The technology has to blend seamlessly into the activity within that space. The design process has to consider the cooking process that the consumer goes through.
Q: As a global brand, do you cater for national trends? A: I do look into national and regional trends as well as global. We look at how different people live. First, we research the lifestyles and trends in their regions, so we have local offi ces. After we have gathered the research materials, we then look at common trends and points. We then build a prototype product. When we launch in different markets on different continents, we add extra elements to those products that refl ect specifi c regional characteristics.
Q: How do you design appliances to suit the different generations of people? A: After 2020, millennials will become one of the most signifi cant buying forces, so we had to look more at them in terms of their trends and characteristics. Firstly, when I looked into millennials, I found they have more personal preferences in terms of what they like with food, and they don’t necessarily want to fi ll the fridge for the whole week, but rather buy what they need at the time. So, quantity [storage space] is not as important as their cooking requirements. For millennials, freshness is essential and to keep the ingredients fresh for longer. They don’t tend to fi ll up the fridge to its maximum capacity as in most parts of the world it is common to have a fresh food service where you can order food at midnight and have it delivered in the morning. Using these services is common for that generation and means there is no need to fi ll the fridge.
kbbr 26 kbbreview · August 2019
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