10 Universal Design Principles as used by Instagram
The rising star of social media, Instagram has hit new levels of popularity over the last few years. Behind every successful app is a designer, working to create the ultimate experience.
Below are 10 design principles Instagram has implemented to make it the success it is today.
In the realm of Instagram, “stories” are a relatively new feature. Even newer are the filters available specifically for those stories. Perhaps the most popular and recognizable filter option is the puppy filter, which adds dog ears and a nose to the user’s face, as well as increasing their eye size. This filter has remained prominently displayed as the first filter option, while many other options have faded away. Why is that? It’s because of the baby-face bias. When cultivating their online presence, many people try to put their best selves forward. The baby-face bias suggests that people with baby-like features are perceived as more honest or helpless. But also just cute.
Instagram has used color very wisely in their design. They have chosen a color scheme that is modern and playful, but they are strict about how much color is implemented. Most of the site is black and white, thus enabling each individual profile to essentially pick its own color scheme (without actually picking one), making them feel more personal. Their colors are really only implemented in order to notify users of updates and interactions.
Confirmation messages allow users to make more informed decisions and prevent errors from occurring. Imagine going through the painstaking process of taking the perfect selfie, adding an inspirational quote to the foreground along with a comical gif in order to post to your Instagram story, only to accidentally hit the delete button. The horror! Luckily Instagram has created a fail-safe for this precise scenario by creating a confirmation message, making sure you know that by clicking that little x, that image will be lost forever. Way to save those selfies, Instagram.
Humans crave routine and predictability. Because of this, consistency is one of the most fundamental principles of design. It helps users to know what to expect when using a particular product. Instagram has a very particular format for their posts, how stories appear, what a profile should look like, etc. All of this helps keep the Instagram user’s experience consistent, regardless of how unique they believe their content to be.
Instagram’s icons are an excellent example of contour bias. Almost none of their icons contain sharp edges, and even those that do are balanced out with curves. Most of Instagram’s design is relatively neutral (see Colors) and by creating heavily contoured icons, Instagram has maintained an emotionally neutral space as well. All of this is to say that the design was created to allow the content to shine through, without the influence of emotionally charged colors or shapes.
One of the most controversial changes Instagram has made over the last couple years was changing the feeds to no longer be simply chronological. Instead they implemented an algorithm, which calculates what profiles a user visits most frequently, which stories individuals watch all the way through, and whose posts get the most likes. All of these factors (and undoubtedly more) play into whose posts and stories show up at the top of your feed. While Instagram did receive some backlash for this change, ultimately it has served to further customize the Instagram experience to more fully engage its users with posts that are most relevant to their interests.
Iconic representation is frequently used in design of all types. Icons could be considered the first universal language. Instagram has implemented icons for all of their menu options- not a single menu option uses words! Even the options for interacting with others’ posts have been limited to only icons. By doing this Instagram has created a very low-noise design that still conveys what is necessary.
The inverted pyramid is a design principle that relates to how information is organized. It is best to present the most relevant and important information first, before continuing on to the nitty gritty details. This organization style can be found in Instagram’s profile design layout. When accessing an individual profile, the profile owner’s name (or tag) is shown at the top of the page, directly followed by a profile picture as well as a brief bio. Then comes the options of how to interact with the profile (i.e. message, follow, block, etc.) and then the profile posts, in chronological order. By organizing this way, Instagram allows profile visitors to get a sense of the “who” and “what” of the profile before delving into the bulk of the content.
Instagram’s capabilities have significantly increased and developed since the platform’s creation. While the premise of the app as a place to share photos remains the same, new features have made it even more engaging. In order to not completely lose site of its usability with its new-found flexibility, Instagram has taken on a rather modular design. By separating its design into clear portions, such as areas for viewing posts vs. watching all of your stories, the user’s experience while interacting with Instagram has not become overly complicated, despite the addition of new features.
Nudging can be helpful in influencing what decisions users make. A very common nudge method is creating default settings that align with the the interests of the company. In Instagram’s case, each profile’s story controls are automatically set to other people to share your stories via messages, as well as allowing anyone to respond to your stories. By defaulting these features to be available, Instagram has sent the message that people can respond to other’s stories unless set up otherwise, rather than the other way around. This helps increase the interactivity of Instagram and helps Instagram reach its goal of keeping their users engaged.
10 Universal Design Principles as used by Instagram
Research & References of 10 Universal Design Principles as used by Instagram|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
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