production for perfectly round-shaped displays yet,” said Han. The
designers at UXCA thought up an unusual user interface that could
accommodate a square watch instead.
When T.J. showed up, he found a circular dial intended to be used as an
alarm clock. But since it wasn’t used in the Galaxy, the designers were
searching for a new purpose. “We created this prototype where moving the
hand along the circumference of the circle would play different music
that’s stored on the device,” said lead designer Neil Everette.
It was an aha moment. T.J. connected the UXCA lab with Daren and
Ed.
“This is perfect for the radio interface [for the Galaxy],” he told them.
“You should only report to me and don’t let anyone in HQ know, because
once HQ people realize that there’s a project going on, then they’ll want a
report on this, and then hundreds of hours will be spent creating those
reports.”
Daren met with Ed to get the project moving.
“So look, this is our last chance,” Daren told everyone. “We gotta turn
this thing around, because if we don’t, they will think that the mSpot
acquisition was a failure.”
The Music Hub team and the UXCA hit the ground running. They
carved the dial into the Music Hub software. It took many long hours over
weeks at the office; the teams knew that if they got too caught up in
“feature-itis” and checklists, they’d ruin the project. It needed to be simple
and usable by anybody. Daren deployed what he called the “mom test.” He
gave it to his mom to see if she could figure out how to use it to spin the
dials and change the channels. And she could.
“Okay, great. This is something that everybody can understand. It’s
reminiscent of the old way of changing radio stations, but it’s digital,” he
said.
It helped that there was a leadership reshuffle at Samsung
Telecommunications America, with a Korean American marketer named
Gregory Lee replacing Dale, the previous CEO. An audiophile and jazz
connoisseur, Gregory was ecstatic about bringing the Galaxy into the realm
of music and video.
T.J. was in South Korea when Gregory came by his office. He’d heard
about the project and was interested in backing it in an exclusive launch on
the American market. T.J. showed him the confidential program. He asked,