Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. launched its Samsung Design Innovation Center, a design lab dedicated to the integration of disruptive user-experiences to product design, in San Francisco, California.

According to company officials, originally launched as a product design studio for North America in 1994, the SDIC will merge with a new user-experience research arm to expand its role from designing products mostly individually to designing multi-device user-experiences.

The mission of the SDIC will be to contribute to creating stronger insights based on a deep understanding of consumer lifestyle trends, as well as adapting to the changing trends and emerging lifestyle patterns of local markets. The center will also play an important role of envisioning product concepts that do not exist today and assist in the launch of those products to market. The SDIC is part of the Corporate Design Center, located in Seoul, and one of seven Samsung design studios globally.

“In this age of connected devices, it is imperative that a designer understands and considers the cross-device user experience for every design element of a product, because most products no longer serve a standalone purpose anymore.” said Dr. Federico Casalegno, Head of SDIC.

“Our mission is to understand people and lifestyles to deliver meaningful experiences, through beautiful yet functional design, enabled by innovative cutting-edge technologies. With a talented team of multi-disciplinary designers, the SDIC will seek to leverage insights from the North American market and tap into the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial spirit to design inspiring products and experiences,” he added.

“At Samsung, we recognize that our design and innovation have to be meaningful to people. It has to help people do more. User experiences must involve awareness of the other devices around them and work together. This is what consumers expect today,”said Don Tae Lee, Head of the Corporate Design Center. “With the launch of the new center, we are establishing the framework to deliver that sort of experience to people across all our consumer devices.”