Shutian Wang UX Design
Instagram Web Platform But Much Better!
Help Instagram to attract more users by redesign their website
I’ve been using the Instagram phone app since 2011 until today.
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I noticed that Instagram always has its website page. I wonder who will be the user of the Instagram website page.
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I posted it on my social media and I got some responses from my folks who are actually using the Instagram website page.
User Interview
The Problems
The login page layout seems out of date - the iPhone model looks out of date
Content View: Here is the screenshot of the homepage of Instagram, where users can view photo and video content on the site. The problem here is that it seems like the CSS style is the same one they used on the phone app but the gap between each block is weird. Take a look at the “Story” block and the one on the right. It seems the page cut off in an interesting way and it’s not very comfortable.
User Responses
"This is definitely not the best thing but from the response I received, some college students use the Instagram website during the class. They can switch from Instagram to their note taker page on their laptop. They don’t need to check their phones during class."
Always on Instagram website page cause easy to upload their works on Instagram. They can upload their photography works directly to Instagram from their computer/laptop device without via to their phone and upload from the mobile device.
Folks mentioned that they just want to take a break from focusing on their small screen phone but can’t get rid of their social media addiction.
PERSONA
DESIGN INSPIRATION
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Pinterest’s homepage can showcase many different contents on one page. User can pick their favorite one to discover more from it.
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Each visual content has its own space and is very organized.
Organized Box
We all have had this type of organized box before.
The square shape lay over other boxes makes people feel organized and comfortable.
Above is the new design Login page. On the right side, it's the artwork showcase. This section will automatically show users the artwork including photography, painting, fashion design, and many art forms from many artists' Instagram.
This section will update daily and all the art showcase sources will be based on the user's big data algorithm.
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Why do we need this section and why it's better than the original one?
Because this will help the Instagram marketing team to attract more potential users, especially people who enjoy the content they prefer to see on this platform. Also, by collaborating with many independent artists on social media, promoting their artworks will help both the Instagram platform and the artist.
In the new design homepage, I made two major changes:
1. Inspired by Pinterest, I decided to include more visual content on one page. Users can choose which content they want to explore the most instead keep scrolling on the homepage. I am sure many people understand we are currently in an information overloads era. Users need to go through many posts to find the contents they like. But putting many posts on one page, users can easily scroll up and down to find the post they want to pay more attention to.
2. I added "Liked Post" for users to find the posts they liked before. Currently, on the webpage, it's hard to find them, I still don't know where to find them.
Hi-fi prototypes
Here is how the Liked Posts section works.
Users are allowed to discover more Liked Posts. The new Liked Posts section is functional and aesthetically pleasing.
The new way to read the content and caption.
Focus on the post itself and caption become an option since most users on Instagram prefer visual content to the wordy caption.
Reflection
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Overall I think my current final design is clean, visually appealing, and more functional than the original Instagram website.
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My favorite part is the space for “Liked Posts”, users can switch new posts and liked posts on the same page, and users can have their public space and a little personal space at the same site. For future works。
Future Updates
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For future works, I would like to redesign the “Saved Posts” page.
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Also for the login page, I hope I can make an automatic slide to show all the great visual content, and clicking on the username, will lead folks to a page that asks them to either login or sign up.
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I would like to come up with a better way to show the caption on the post. Currently, I use the mouse to see captions and a mouse out to let it disappear based on the reality that everyone around me has a touch phone. But I realized that this is a website page, so I might need to reconsider this idea for people who might not be familiar with this site. I