Designing Tomorrow’s Fridge: Samsung Product Innovation & Design Thinking Workshop Shaping the Future of Home Life

Designing the Future of Refrigeration Through Insight and Innovation

SOLUTIONS WE PROVIDED

We partnered with Samsung to envision the next generation of refrigerators for modern homes across Southeast Asia. Through ethnographic research and design thinking workshops, we explored how millennials live, eat, and interact with their kitchens, translating real user insights into forward-thinking product design and innovation. From uncovering unmet needs to prototyping tangible solutions, we guided Samsung’s Singapore Product Innovation Team in transforming concept ideas into real, market-ready products. This collaboration redefined refrigeration as more than an appliance, but as an intelligent, adaptable companion for contemporary lifestyles in the region.

Pushed Boundaries: Samsung’s journey to reimagine the future of home refrigeration

THE CREATIVE CHALLENGE
Understanding millennials’ evolving lifestyles to shape the next generation of home appliances

    • Samsung sought to create refrigerators that go beyond functionality and resonate with how modern millennials live and interact with their kitchens.

    • Traditional product research methods could not capture the emotional and behavioural nuances behind daily routines and food habits.

    • The challenge was to uncover real, in-home insights that reveal unspoken needs, frustrations, and aspirations among diverse millennial households.

    • Translating these complex lifestyle observations into actionable design directions required a bridge between research, creativity, and strategy.

    • Samsung needed a design partner capable of guiding its Product Innovation Team through a structured yet creative process, from empathy to ideation to prototyping.

color photo black and white
THE SOLUTION
A design-led research process that transformed everyday insights into real, market-ready refrigerator innovations

  • Conducted in-depth ethnographic research to observe how millennials live, cook, and interact with their refrigerators in real environments across Southeast Asia.

  • Uncovered key behavioural patterns and pain points, from limited storage flexibility to aesthetic and lifestyle aspirations in compact urban homes.

  • Facilitated Design Thinking Workshop with Samsung’s Product Innovation Team in Singapore, guiding participants through empathy, define, ideate, and prototype stages.

  • Developed and visualised high-fidelity product design concepts such as modular storage systems, touchless access, and lifestyle-integrated forms.

  • These ideas were implemented into actual product development, inspiring new refrigerator designs that moved from conceptual sketches to real, market-launched models in Samsung’s lineup.

THE DIFFERENCE
color photo black and white
PRODUCT INNOVATION
We strategically partnered with Samsung’s Product Innovation Team in Singapore to uncover what people in Southeast Asia truly want from their home appliances and to turn those insights into meaningful innovation. Through ethnographic research and design thinking workshops, we discovered real user pain points and aspirations, from space-saving needs in compact homes to desires for intuitive, lifestyle-integrated design. These insights guided the creation of clear value propositions and forward-thinking refrigerator concepts. Our high-fidelity prototypes, featuring touchless access, modular storage, and aesthetic adaptability, directly addressed user problems and helped Samsung’s team in shaping real products for the market. The result: a human-centred innovation journey that transformed insight into implementation, redefining the future of refrigeration for modern living.
ETHNOGRAPHY RESEARCH & DESIGN THINKING WORKSHOP
After completing the ethnographic research phase, Creativeans translated real-world user observations into tangible design ideas through a collaborative design thinking workshop with Samsung’s Product Innovation Team in Singapore. This workshop marked the transition from research to creativity, where insights gathered from Southeast Asian households were turned into quick sketches and visual explorations. Each sketch captured potential solutions to genuine user challenges, from flexible storage and spatial efficiency to intuitive user interaction. The hands-on sketching process allowed the team to rapidly iterate, test, and refine concepts in real time. These drawings became the foundation for high-fidelity prototypes, bridging the gap between human insight and product innovation while shaping the refrigerators that would eventually enter the market.
PROTOTYPING & CONCEPT REALISATION

Building upon the ideas generated during the workshop, the prototyping phase transformed abstract concepts into tangible design directions. We developed a series of high-fidelity refrigerator prototypes that visualised how each concept could function in real life, from touchless access and modular storage systems to lifestyle-integrated designs that blur the line between kitchen and living space. These prototypes combined aesthetic form, material detail, and user interaction, allowing Samsung’s Product Innovation Team to evaluate feasibility and user experience with clarity. By turning sketches into realistic visualisations, this stage bridged creativity and engineering, empowering Samsung to envision the future of refrigeration with confidence and purpose.

PROJECT SUMMARY

Through a human-centred innovation process, Creativeans helped Samsung uncover real user insights, generate fresh ideas, and visualise the next generation of refrigerators designed for millennial lifestyles. From ethnographic research and design thinking workshops to detailed sketching and high-fidelity prototyping, we guided Samsung’s Product Innovation Team in transforming everyday challenges into purposeful, future-ready design opportunities. The outcome was a suite of visionary refrigerator concepts that redefined how people interact with their appliances, intuitive, adaptable, and emotionally engaging. This collaboration not only strengthened Samsung’s design innovation capabilities but also positioned the brand to lead the evolution of intelligent home living.

Our collaboration with Samsung’s Product Innovation Team was a defining example of how design thinking can transform research into real innovation. By immersing ourselves in users’ homes and daily lives, we uncovered insights that reshaped how the refrigerator could fit into modern living.

Kimming Yap
Managing Director, Creativeans Pte Ltd
NEXT PROJECT
ADMIRA
View More
Yulia Saksen

Yulia Saksen

International Brand Consultant and Co-Founder of Creativeans

Your brand might look great. But is it working?

Discover what’s missing in your brand strategy and how a few changes can grow your business.

You want to do a brand revamp? Now what?

We’ll help you understand what’s needed, what works, and how to make your company look great.

Book a Free Brand Consultation with Yulia in 2026

JOIN THE WAITLIST
BRANDSBUILDER.AI

BrandsBuilder.ai streamlines every phase of branding, from strategy and positioning to identity creation and customer experience.

HOVARLAY

HOVARLAY transforms packaging and campaigns into powerful digital touchpoints. No apps. No reprints. No barriers.

Business Enquiry
info@creativeans.com
Career / Internship
collaborate@creativeans.com
GRANTS
RESOURCES
CAREER
AWARDS

Creativeans is an award-winning brand and design consultancy based in Singapore, Milan and Jakarta. We build brands that matter.

Singapore Registered Management Consultant © 2025 Creativeans Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved