Making the User Experience About the User

Sharp has been a world leader in the television category for decades, but with other brands catching up to Sharp’s once firm leadership position in the large panel LED market, the company needed a new focus and fresh differentiation. With an eye toward capturing market share in the expanding Smart TV market, Sharp partnered with RKS to design and distinguish Sharp’s Smart TV UI from the growing competition. With TVs getting ever slimmer, and thus providing fewer opportunities to differentiate based on physical design, UI is central to TV market success.

Through careful study of contemporaneous Smart TV UIs, the research and strategy team identified a pattern amongst the offerings—every UI was very app focused, including Sharp’s. Given this, there was very little differentiation between brands. The team utilized RKS’ proprietary Psycho-Aesthetics to pinpoint a new position for Sharp’s UI offering. The team would move Sharp from just another app based UI to a novel, content based one with a fresh, clean design. Through prototyping, wire framing and visual design, the design team moved this strategy from idea to reality.

With a unique, minimal visual design, coupled with its focus on content, Sharp’s RKS designed 2014 Smart UI was an immediate hit. As leading technology magazine, The Verge, wrote upon seeing it for the first time, “Sharp has seemingly learned the same lesson that helped Roku and Apple find success: put content first and then get out of the way. It’s entirely possible to make something ‘smart’ while being mindful of a user’s experience. When sensible design is a priority, it shows.”