Is Instagram trying to be the worst app?
With posts on different social media networks garnering thousands of likes criticizing the platform, it’s hard not to ask — where are Instagram’s user designers?
A quick UX/UI dive into Instagram’s recent features and critiques.
If you’re lucky enough to be one of Instagram's beta users, you’ve probably noted the new change in layout. Where you now have two different navigation bars, instead of being able to add a photo from the center of the lower navbar, you have to now go through the home page and click on and locate the new icon on the left side of the platform’s logo. Or maybe you were trying to search up an account that you wanted to follow and now have a new feature ‘Reels’ replacing that search page.
Before we dive into the critiques, we need to understand the reasons for the newly implemented features: ‘Reels’ and ‘Shop’.
Reels serve as a competitor for one of the greatest app breakthroughs this year — TikTok, “the destination for short-form mobile videos”. (Which honestly took over the blue ocean Vine created).
TikTok itself has gone through a handful of controversies in the states and has been the topic for debate on and off. A few months ago, President Trump said he planned to ban the social media platform from operating in the United States. Then Microsoft was said to be in talks to purchase TikTok but evidently pulled out.
I don’t work for Instagram or have a mind of a mastermind, but I'm guessing seeing all this turmoil, Instagram seized the day and implemented ‘Reels’ that would serve as that place where you could binge-watch 40 short-form videos and wonder where exactly you’re heading with your life at 3 am.
The problem with this implementation though is not the feature itself, but the new layout.
It’s “confusing” and “worthless”.
So as any UXer would do, we went straight into interview mode and found some interesting critiques takeaways ranging from the algorithm to the new layouts.
“I’ve accidentally clicked on them, but I feel like it’s just too many add-ons personally.”
“I personally don’t care for the reels, I just think it’s annoying…and the shopping too.”
“I’d rather just go on TikTok and watch the videos there.”
Our job as UI designers is to limit the number of clicks a user has to go through to complete the task that they came to do. If Instagram’s main brand statement is a “creative way to capture, edit & share photos, videos & messages with friends & family”, users should be able to do exactly that without being bombarded with various features that they aren’t particularly taking a liking to.
100% of users said the new features were “unneccessary”
It’s safe to say that Instagram has been taking these criticisms seriously and, as I am writing this, is constantly shifting the layouts around.
The best layout that has our user’s in mind is either the original or second where they can easily add photos to their stories or page without having to navigate through multiple pages which will reduce the number of misclicks. (Not shown) And having the Search page’s navigation bar (where IGTV and shop are located in the first layout) larger in size to have easier and quicker experiences.
I would love to continue this by taking some Instagram users (that aren’t friends) and testing out where they click for certain tasks within that new layout. Asking questions such as, “Can you upload a new photo to your stories?”, “Can you search for [X]’s Instagrams page?”, “Can you check your latest post’s likes?” and see how they navigate through the new screens and pages.
I would also love to dive into the algorithm situation where people felt as if they were only seeing the “same people” on their following feed or “old ass posts” when they follow countless others.
We focused mostly on ‘Reels’ but would want to see how people are feeling about the ‘Shop’ feature as well.
Looking at these sentiment metrics, we’ll be able to create an even better experience while staying true to the primary user’s goals.
UPDATE (11/13/2020):
Social media influencer, James Charles, brought light to the app’s new layout by posting onto his Instagram stories about his annoyance with the new update and how it “does not give a flying f*** about their creators or anyone that uses this app”. These new updates target large businesses that want to connect with their audiences especially when face-to-face contact isn’t the best option as of right now, but content creators/social media influencers will continue to see a decline in follower engagement due to the new algorithm and their new “trash” features.
You might be unbothered by these new features and believe that Instagram changing its interface should not be “rage-worthy”, but to some Instagram is the way they connect with their audience and if Instagram starts prioritizing large businesses instead of the majority of their audience, people will begin switching to different apps or using the app less frequently.
Interviewing some of my artist friends has proved just that, they feel that they are getting “less exposure” and “fewer likes” which shows that this does affect people’s livelihoods.
If you found this mini-breakdown interesting I would love to shamelessly guide you to my UX/UI breakdown of Twitter’s platform.
Thank you!
Gaelle Charlet — TheFemmeCoder.
