For the past few weeks, I have been trying to break down my mental models on how platforms are supposed to be designed. I have also been reading a lot around upcoming social trends and Gen-Z.
When you look around you, in magazines, movies, ads, social media platforms in general, you will see photos that are perfect in every manner. People take countless photos to get the location, lighting and the look right to get more engagement and to also control how people perceive them. But if you pay attention to how Gen Z has been posting photos, they are a lot more about sharing candid and authentic pictures. Seems like teens are fed up of unattainable beauty standards that are put up on them.
Hence, I have been thinking around how photo sharing and consumption will change in future. I particularly wanted to reimagine Instagram because it is one of the most widely used photo sharing platform in the world.
Broadly, people use Instagram in two ways.
- Creating content
- Consuming content
Now, let’s look at how the user journeys vary for people who create content vs those who consume content, and see if any of these journeys could be different, and how they might change in future.
Content Creators
If you look at folks who actively post content on Instagram, this is what their typical user journey looks like
- User captures a moment
- User has an option to edit the photo
- User shares photo with all their followers
- User constantly checks for engagement
- Users content data is available to everyone on their network
What could be different about each of these steps?
User captures a moment
If you look at the type of content that gets posted on Instagram, they feel so perfect, don’t they? People who look really happy and beautiful at amazing places around the world. If you think about it, moments such as these are rare in life, most of our day to day activities are pretty mundane and not “Insta worthy”
But what if there could be other social media platforms that pushed you to capture these mundane activities and share them?
- A platform that gives you the opportunity to post only at certain times of the day, and if you miss that window, you cannot post on that day. This would maybe push users to give a peek of their mundane but relatable lives
- What if there was a platform where you could make your slightly sad moments into a meme and have a laugh about it with your friends
- In western countries, for people who are going through dark times in their lives, there are communities where groups of people come together and talk about their experiences and how they are coping up with it. Where is the internet version of this?
- What if there is a platform that allows you to post pictures only of your friends (with their consent)? Wouldn’t this push you to care more about your friends and be less self centered?
User edits the photo
Instagram has at least 25 filters that allow users to edit their photos to look more appealing.
- But what if the platform gives you an option to edit your photos such that they fall into one of the following buckets? Some platforms such as tiktok, snapchat already provide these options, they can be a lot more varied though
- What if the platform does not even allow you to edit your photos or to upload edited photos?
- What if the platform allows you to convert your photos into cartoons or comics?
- What if the platform allows you to make memes out of the photos you take?
There would definitely be a lot more opportunities in future in terms of how users can generate and edit their photos
User shares photo with all their followers
- Ever been a part of those group projects where you had to do most of the work yourself while the other members just helped deliver their lines in the final presentation?
- Ever been a part of a book club or debate groups where everyone agrees to participate actively but the group dies after a month
- Ever put in a lot of effort to solve problems for others and got nothing in return when you needed something?
Humans have this natural tendency to be a part of active communities where each member contributes equally. When it comes to things that are personal or intimate, we are most often comfortable sharing it with those people who are very close to us. Most of the social media platforms that are live right now, don’t solve for the needs of people looking for intimate connections with people who have common interests.
User constantly checks for engagement
People often find themselves constantly checking their social media platforms after they create new posts, even when they know that it’s an absolute waste of time, which eventually leads to regret. Humans crave for social acceptance and appreciation, that is just how our brains are wired.
- What if the platform does not show you stats immediately after you post your content for a fixed amount of time so that you can concentrate on other things?
- What if the platform locks you out of the app for one day after you post your content?
- What if you can only use the platform for a fixed amount of time everyday so that you do not waste time?
Users content data is available to everyone on their network
There have been articles which highlight how Instagram and Facebook affect how teens look and feel about themselves. In schools and colleges, there is always talk around how many likes and comments a user’s post is getting, who has the maximum number of followers, who is the most popular person on campus etc which in turn negatively affects those in the same peer group who want the same level of appreciation.
- Personally, I’d really love an option where I can hide the number followers I have, the likes and comments my posts are getting on Instagram. What if some platform gives me this option to personalize how I want stats to be visible to my network?
- What if you could personalize how users see your content? I might want to share few posts exclusively with close friends. I might want to hide few posts exclusively from some followers. I might want to maintain a separate diary where I can store memories that only I can see.
- What if only people who actively post content and engage with your content can get access to all your new posts?
Content Consumers
If you look at folks who actively consume content on Instagram, this is what their typical user journey looks like
- User consumes content without creating or engaging
- User engages with content
What could be different about each of these steps?
Users consuming content without creating or engaging
Ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling through content without reacting to any of it? Yup, facebook became that platform for me 2 years ago, before I stopped using it.
- What if the platform shows you a message “Hey, you have been mindlessly scrolling for the past x minutes, why don’t you take a break?”
- What if the platform shows you a message “Hey, you have been mindlessly scrolling for the past x minutes, what kind of content are you looking for?”
- What if the platform does not allow people to engage with other people’s content without creating something? Wouldn’t we feel more comfortable sharing mundane details about our lives if others do the same as well?
- What if the product is designed in such a manner that the user can consume and react to it? And the entire focus is on making the user react to the post after consumption?
Users engages with content
On Instagram, you currently have an option to like (heart) a picture or comment on the picture. Most of us do not even have close connections with people who like our photos. I have had friends tell me in the past that they do not like pictures because that is not how they want to react to it.
But what if I can introduce more ways through which people can react to posts?
- What if we have reactions which say “relatable”, “went through this just the other day”, “I want to eat at this place too!”, “I want to travel to this place some day” etc, basically including the most common thoughts that people have in their brain when they come across pictures with mundane and day to day content?
- When people use Instagram, they do get dopamine hits when they see all those likes on the post, but are they really close to everyone reacting to their post? What if we don’t allow people to react with content? What if we just give them an option to view the content and message the creator?
- What if we give people an option to react to a photo with their personal photo that captures their emotions?
Wrapping it up
There are a lot of other minute details we could get into while reimagining Instagram, but I wanted to just rethink the core flows of the platform.
Awaiting that social media platform that enables me to connect and maintain an intimate bond with people that I care about without having to worry about the quality of what I post, and no, it’s not Whatsapp.
Thanks for reading! 😃 If you have any questions or anything to share, leave a comment!
