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Project overview
Project Title:
Instagram app redesign
Redesigning the Instagram app to enhance user experience by introducing a new feature
Role:
UX designer
Duration:
3 weeks (Jun 2024 - Jul 2024)
Problem:
Content creators often split videos and stories into serialized contents to drive engagement. Following these contents requires users to scroll extensively to find both the initial part of a series and subsequent episodes. This fragmented content experience can be frustrating, as users may need to scroll through numerous posts just to find what they are looking for
Solution:
To address the challenge of finding and following serialized content, a new feature will be implemented. This feature specifically allows users to return to a previously published post and add subsequent parts to it. This approach respects the creative intent of building suspense and driving engagement, while providing a seamless and intuitive user experience for navigating and consuming the serialized content within a single post.
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Introduction
Instagram is a popular social media platform for sharing visually appealing photographs, videos, and Stories. It has a wide range of capabilities for content creation, editing, and discovery, making it an effective tool for both personal and professional use. While highly engaging, it presents a frustrating challenge: easily navigating through multi-part content like Reddit stories, short films, and other serialized content. This project aims to redesign the Instagram experience to address this specific pain point, allowing users to seamlessly discover and follow the sequence of related content.
To show case this, I will be illustrating how users currently navigate the app to find serialized content vs how they will after my redesign.
Before
To visualize and better understand the problem, the user will perform the following task:
TASK: Find and watch other parts of a serialized reel.
STEPS:
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Navigate to User Profile: The user taps the user's handle or image.
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Scroll and Search: The user scrolls through the user's posts to locate other parts or sequels of the reel.
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Watch and Repeat: The user watches the found content, then returns to the user profile and repeats the scrolling process to find the next part.
From the above, it is clear that finding other parts of a serialized content on Instagram can be a tedious process, especially for profiles with numerous posts and reels with multiple parts.
User research
In order to validate my assumptions and gain deeper insights into user experiences, I conducted user interviews with 10 students at Northumbria university who are active Instagram users. The interviews focused on their experiences with following serialized content on the platform.
Key Questions:
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How long have you been using Instagram?
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How often do you use Instagram (daily, weekly, etc.)?
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Do you use Instagram to follow any serialized content (e.g., stories, reels, posts)?
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If yes, what types of serialized content do you follow (e.g., educational series, cooking tutorials, mini-series)?
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How easy or difficult is it to navigate and follow serialized content from beginning to end on Instagram?
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What are the biggest challenges you face when trying to follow serialized content on Instagram?
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Have you ever given up on following a serialized content due to difficulties in navigation or other reasons?
Key Findings:
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All of the participants reported difficulty in following serialized contents especially reels
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Many of the participants all acknowledged that they have on many occasions given up on finding the remaining parts of the serialized content because it was extremely frustrating finding them.
Proposed solution
To visualize the proposed ideal solution, the user will perform the same task as before:
TASK: Find and watch other parts of a serialized reel.
STEPS:
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Swipe and View: The user swipes left on the reel to view subsequent parts.
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Repeat: The user repeats the swipe action until all parts of the reel have been watched.
From the above, it is clear that finding other parts of any serialized content now is a lot easier and more intuitive than it was before
New feature
To facilitate the solution of an easy navigation and discovery of serialized content, a new feature called "Series" is introduced. This feature enables users to append new content to an existing post, creating a serialized narrative within a single post. Each update is presented as a new post, seamlessly replacing the previous version, maintaining a continuous and easily accessible thread of information.
To visualize how the "Series" feature will be used, a new task will be performed.
TASK: Add a new reel to an existing reel to make a serialized content.
STEPS:
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Access Series feature: The user taps the three-dot "more" button to open the actions overlay and then taps "+ create series" (which will be "+ add to series" if the series has been created at a previous time).
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Select Content: The user selects the additional content to be added to the existing thread.
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Review and Confirm: The user taps "next" to review the updated thread and then taps "share" to publish the new version.
This new feature makes it easy to add additional content to a serialized content and make it sit in a single post.
Usability study
To evaluate the usability of my redesign, I conducted unmoderated testing with ten active Instagram users. Using the Figma Mirror app on an Android device, I presented participants with a prototype of a serialized story.
Remarkably, all participants intuitively navigated through the story, utilizing the pagination dots as a visual cue for the existence of multiple parts. When questioned about their navigation strategy, they unanimously stated that the pagination dots inherently suggested the presence of additional content accessible via swiping. This unexpected awareness highlighted the intuitive nature of the design and the effectiveness of pagination dots in communicating the structure of serialized content.
Next, I introduced the "Series" feature. Participants were initially hesitant, reflecting the unfamiliarity of this functionality within the current Instagram platform. However, all participants instinctively tapped the three-dot "More" icon, demonstrating its established role as a point of access for additional options. Following this initial pause, they successfully added a new reel to the series, exhibiting visible excitement and engagement. This observation suggests that while the "Series" feature might require initial familiarization, it has the potential for strong user adoption.
Overall, the usability testing provided valuable insights into the effectiveness of the redesigned serialized content feature. The intuitive navigation facilitated by pagination dots and the successful integration of the "Series" feature demonstrate the potential for a positive user experience.