Hyundai Motor Group, comprising Hyundai Motor and Kia Corporation, announced that it has opened its new ‘UX Studio Shanghai’ user experience research hub, designed to deepen the company’s “engagement with China’s fast-evolving smart mobility market and translate emerging user insights into global innovation.” It is the company’s fourth consumer experience research hub to open globally, after similar facilities were put into operation in South Korea, Germany, and the US in the last few years.
The South Korean automaker said the new “open co-creation space”, located in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, will help shift its ‘in China, for China, to Global’ strategy from vision to execution, “showing how multinational automakers can advance localization in the era of smart, electrified mobility.”
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HMG’s Chief Technology Officer for China, Jae Ho Huh, said in a statement: “The UX Studio Shanghai will serve as an advanced research outpost for more accurately understanding and researching Chinese consumer needs, while simultaneously translating insights gained from the Chinese market into our global R&D. Through this approach, we will realize our strategic vision of ‘in China, for China, to Global’.”
The automaker further explained that as the global automotive industry enters the era of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), automobiles are evolving beyond basic transportation vehicles to become “intelligent mobility spaces that accompany customers through their daily lives.” The company confirmed that it “aims to accelerate its transformation from a company that sells vehicles to one that designs mobility experiences across the entire customer journey. In this context, user-centered experience design has become the core differentiator of brand competitiveness.”
HMG confirmed that the UX Studio Shanghai will look to “enable customers to participate directly in the entire development process from initial concept through to mass production, collaborating across all dimensions including space composition and functional design to enhance quality.” The facility features two collaborative spaces within a three-storey building:
- Open Lab: A public space featuring three zones—UX Explorer, UX Test, and UX Archive—where visitors can experience emerging mobility technologies and gain a deeper understanding of user-centric development processes.
- Advanced Lab: A dedicated space for invited users, equipped with a flexible UX study “buck” and a high-fidelity simulation platform. It supports in-depth user research and co-development programs that integrate user feedback throughout product development, from concept to validation.
