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Social Media
Instagram Feature Introduction
Every user has a problem with social media, whether they are conscious about it or not. For me, it was instagram. In this short case study I have showcased the pain points that I faced, as other users did as well, while introducing a new feature, prior to the insights I have gathered, that overcomes that problem.
Product Scope
Product Analysis
Saving Time
Custom Feed
Scope & Inspiration
Inspiration
I have been using instagram since 2012. This application is one of my go to apps that I use everyday, especially when I am bored or would want to explore for inspirations to create my next artwork or product. These days, it now looks like I keep seeing approximately the same 30 accounts on my feed when I follow hundreds of people, out of which most of them post content consistently. And this gets boring most of the time, especially when the content I am seeing is not something that fits my mood. The time I spend on Instagram has reduced to a bare minimum, when I use the app. It’s probably because I am bored and I want to see funny, an interesting content, or I just want to see what my friends are up to.
A few months ago, I was trying to look for some UX inspirations and current insights, prior to that field, and I got quite frustrated when I wanted to look for the accounts that I followed. There were many UX related accounts I followed and wanted to see their content. I literally had to search them in my following list to manually locate those accounts and view their page. That is when it hit me about coming up with an idea for creating a custom feed for users, which will save them time and can help them filter accounts that they want to see on their feed, based on their custom based tags that they have created.
Problem Identification
As the world is becoming a global village and technology being revolutionised day by day, new ideas and inventions are being introduced. Similarly, in our current times, especially during this Covid-19 outbreak, everybody around the world is using digital devices / products, particularly their smartphones, the world has gone fully remote in 2021. These days, social media apps are being used every single second, whether for entertainment, reaching out to friends, meeting new people, or looking for inspirations.
Globally, screen time for users has maximised, whether it is for business or pleasure. In regards to after hours for users, they use their time skimming through their social media apps quite frequently. I Myself became a victim of spending extensive amount of screen time, using social media apps, mostly instagram.
Similarly, as for maintaining a balanced lifestyle, one must learn to manage their screen time after hours.
Problem & Solution
Scope & Solution
Instagram is an application that everyone loves to use. In regards to this product’s pain points, my focus and strategy is to identify those pain points that I myself face everyday and see, which pain point I should focus on that would make the highest impact and enhance the user experience, prior to using instagram. The solution is followed by; myself, identifying frustrating touch points, while using the application, and then conducting a user survey regarding those frustrations to analyse if those suggested pain points by me, are universal or not, amongst other active instagram users.
The user experience process and enhancement of instagram is followed by the research that I have conducted, from which I can successfully identify and present it as a possible solution that can enhance the experience for instagram users and save them time from endless scrolls.
Pain Points
Pain points are sorted based on the impact of user experience.
Pain Points
No customisation for accounts on newsfeed.
Endless scrolling without having an option to filter accounts that I want to see while using instagram, at a particular time. Very time consuming.
The content that I come across on my instagram newsfeed is in random order, based on the time, when an account posted a content. If at that time I would like to see what my friends are up to, I have to search them to see what is happening in their lives, as I follow diverse accounts, such as, meme, designers, artists, friends, and family accounts.
Due to this reason the content is at random. If I am in the mood to see content related to designs, I have no other way than to go to design page profiles or search hashtags to view content for inspiration.
This has been been the most frustrating experience that I face daily on instagram.
Ads while viewing stories.
Advertisement appearing in stories after every few swipes.
For Advertisement it takes an extra effort to swap through these stories. It does not feel frustrating at first, but after a while it starts getting on my nerves. Most of the time the ads are not random, in my stories, but it feels as if instagram is forcing me to view these ads. A lot of times I tapped on these stories by accident and it redirected myself to the account profiles or their websites, which annoys me a lot.
Ads while scrolling news feed.
Advertisement appearing in my newsfeed and most of the time it is not even related to my interests.
This particular pain points is not that frustrating, because instagram shows these ads smoothly and does not over use them on my newsfeed, but the advertisements are not based on my interests, most of the time. Sometimes, it does scare me when I am talking about a particular brand on a call and a few moments later I see that product’s advertisement on instagram or on other social media platforms. So my concern is related to privacy, prior to this pain point.
People sharing & saving my content.
Curiosity about who is sharing & saving my content.
This is a minor pain point based on my curiosity about knowing who is sharing and saving my content. If I am not tagged on stories, then I am not aware about who is sharing my content. I am particularly curious about who is saving my content. It would have been nice to know who is being inspired by my work. As having a business account, I get these insights, but I would have loved if instagram would have enhanced this feature by showing me which accounts have saved my content.
Highest impact-pain point.
Scrolling through instagram is time consuming, as I follow hundreds of accounts. The most frustrating pain point that I face is having no option to filter accounts that I want to see in my newsfeed, at a particular time, as most of the content is shown in random order. This feels quite unproductive, because I use instagram according to my mood.
Sometimes I want to look at funny memes and sometimes I want to look at design inspirations. But in order to do that I have to search a particular account or hashtag to view related content only.
I have been facing this problem for quite some years now and I would like to fix this problem, as this wastes a lot of my time on instagram.
NEXT CONCERNING QUESTIONS!
Is it just me or are other instagram users facing the same problem? And would they like to see this sub-feature ( Customising Feed ) as a part of their newsfeed, to enhance their user experience and save them time?
Research
Quantitative research about other instagram users and their experience.
Today, Instagram is being used by millions of users on a daily basis, so I conducted a small quantitative survey to understand how other users are using instagram and what problems do they come across. I accumulated data from 13 instagram users and asked about common questions related to their use and experience. And also asking them about if they would like to see a solution that I pointed out, related to having a filter/sub-feature in their newsfeed to pin accounts, along with their customised categories.
Questions asked in my survey.
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What is your age?
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What do you use instagram for?
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How often do you use instagram?
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How many times do you use instagram in a day?
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How much time do you spend on instagram when you open the app?
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Are there any pain points about instagram that you face?
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If you have pain points about instagram, have you found a way to overcome those pain points?
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Do you use instagram according to your mood?
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Assuming that you are following a lot of accounts on instagram. Do you find the necessary content, of whom you follow in your newsfeed? Or do you have to search someone’s account to see what they are up to?
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How do you feel about customised accounts filtered list for your newsfeed that you can add and edit accounts in those lists, to determine what you want to see and whose content you would like to see in your newsfeed? ( Similar to close friends feature for stories, but for pinning accounts for your customised list for your newsfeed ).
Conclusion based on survey.
13 responses
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84% of the users that filled my survey were in between the ages of 25 - 30.
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46% ( Majority ) of the users used instagram for generally everything from posting content to staying up to date with trends, family, friends, like mined people, and to get inspired.
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92% of them used instagram daily.
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38% ( Majority ) of the users use instagram 2 - 4 times a day.
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61% users used instagram for 5 - 15 minutes, when they open the app.
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For pain points, some users did not have any, while others were facing problems related to advertisements, unwanted things, digital marketing mechanism, and unable to post from their computers.
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For overcoming the pain points, some people expressed about closing the app, blocking certain accounts, budget related issues ( assuming for business accounts ), and liking more related posts so their explore feed gets better.
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84% users used instagram according to their mood.
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For finding necessary content on their ( users ) newsfeed, most of the users said that they do, while saying “usually”, assuming that happens every now and then. While also agreeing that they have to search for accounts.
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Then for my last question, which was based on my concept solution, 53.9% of users agreed on having this sub feature as a solution for customising their followed account lists to determine what they want to see, while 30.8% users were neutral, and 15.4% disagreed.
System Pipeline
Concept & Design
Low fidelity design to initiate concept
User flow of instagram customisation method
Conclusion Insights.
Customise Categories - Cause & Effect
Conclusion Insights
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Saving time for users.
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Users having an option to create multiple categories to organise their feeds.
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User would not be missing content of their favourite accounts.
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Giving the power to the user to customise their newsfeed, hence creating a personalised experience.
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No more unnecessary scrolling.
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