Instagram

New Instagram feature that enables users to search for specific posts within a profile and into their “Saved” collections.

Overview

Background

Instagram is a social media app launched in 2010. It allows users to share photos and videos, apply filters and effects, and interact with others through likes, comments, and direct messaging.
As a user, and also by talking with people, I realized that most users are having problems in searching for specific post they remembered and wanted to come back.

Goals

Identify the pain points that the users are having with the experience of searching on Instagram. According to that, add a seamless feature that helps the users to enhance their experience and make more efficient their research on the app.

Time

4 weeks - July 2023

Role

UX and UI designer

Tasks

Research, user & tasks flows, wireframes, protoyipe, test.

Solution

Two seamless features were added to solve the users problem. The first one is a search feature within every profile, that enables users to search for specific posts into someone’s feed.
The second one is a search feature within the “saved” collections to search for posts that have been saved earlier.

Design Thinking Process

Empathize

O1

Define

O2

Ideate

O3

O4

Test

Prototype

O5

01 EMPATHIZE

Research Objectives

Before starting the research, I determined the clear objectives to guide my direction. The first one is to make a competitive analysis to see how the direct competitors are handling the searching experience in their platforms.
Secondly, through user interviews, I want to learn the main reasons why users search for something on Instagram and identify any pain point they encounter while trying to accomplish their tasks.

Competitive Analyisis

Pinterest, Youtube, and Tik Tok are Instagram's direct competitors when it comes to seeking for inspiration across various topics. I noticed that all three platforms allow users to explore content within individual profiles. Also, in all of them, as in Instagram, users can save favorite content, but accessing it efficiently remains a challenge. To find specific content, users must scroll through their saved items, resulting in a less user-friendly experience.

User Interviews

After studying the market, I had 6 one-on-one interviews, each lasting 30 minutes, to uncover the users' challenges when searching for specific content on Instagram. All participants use Instagram daily to seek inspiration and find specific posts or items. I then used an affinity map to organize the information based on the users' journey during the search process.

Key Research Insights

After conducting interviews and creating an affinity map, I focused in identifying the insights related to the users needs and the problems they face during the search process on Instagram. What impressed me was their shared sense of frustration with the search process, as they perceived it to be more time-consuming than anticipated.

“When I need to look for something in a specific account, I need to scroll and most of the time it takes so much time to get there. Sometimes I can’t even find it.” - Cata

  • Users face difficulties in searching for something specific within someone's profile since there is no search engine available. They find it frustrating and time-consuming to scroll until they locate what they want.

“I like to use the saved feature. However, it becomes frustrating when I have to scroll through my saved content repeatedly to get what I need.”
- Jose

  • Participants face difficulties in searching for something specific within someone's profile since there is no search engine available. They find it frustrating and time-consuming to scroll until they locate what they want.

02 DEFINE

User Persona

User Persona

Based on the research findings, I created a User Persona who represents a person that uses instagram daily to get some inspiration for her personal and professional life. I wanted to emphatize her goals and frustrations.

POV/HMW questions

To be clear about the user’s needs and before thinking in the solution, I came up with the most important POV statements and HMW questions according to my User Persona.

POV statements

  • User needs a search engine feature within individual profiles because the current absence of such functionality makes it challenging and time consuming to easily and efficiently find specific content.

  • User needs to have a more efficient way to navigate through their saved content, because they feel frustration by having to scroll extensively whenever they are searching for something specific.

HMW questions

  • How might we develop a search engine feature within individual profiles that enables users to effortlessly and efficiently find specific content?

  • How might we provide users with an intuitive method to access specific content within their saved section, eliminating the need for scrolling?

According to the POV/HMW statements I prioritized the features that are going to be added to the already existing app of Instagram. The features are categorized into “must have”, “nice to have”, “surprising and delightful” and “can come later”.

Feature Roadmap

According to the POV/HMW statements I prioritized the features that are going to be added to the already existing app of Instagram. The features are categorized into “must have”, “nice to have”, “surprising and delightful” and “can come later”.

03 IDEATE

Site Map


I crafted User & Task flows to ensure clarity regarding the user's journey with the new features added. The two tasks that are going to be added are:

  1. Searching for a post into a specific account.

  2. Searching for a post into the “saved” folder.

User & Task Flows

04 DESIGN

Low Fi wireframes

Low Fi wireframes

I began sketching out wireframes for the two tasks the user needed to perform, incorporating the two new features. I had doubts about where to place the search icon in the first task of "searching a post within a specific profile," so I asked for opinions from my group crit sessions. The consensus was that option 2 was preferred by everyone because it aligned better with Instagram's layout, providing a more seamless experience. According to that, I moved on to design the mid fi wireframes for the two tasks.

Mid Fi wireframes

Task 1: Get into someone’s profile and search for a specific post into that account.

Home Page

Explore

Explore Page

Search profile feed

Search

Posts options

Posts

Task 2: Get into your Saved collections and search for a specific post.

Home Page

Menu Profile

My Profile

Saved Search

Saved Collections

Posts

Usability Testing

Once the mid-fi wireframes were ready, I conducted testing to ensure that the new feature made sense to users, was easily identifiable, and provided valuable assistance. I opted for Maze to conduct Usability testing as it allowed me to reach a wider audience than in-person testing. Given Instagram's popularity, I expected a good response. I posted the tasks on Discord Channel, and once five users completed them, I concluded the testing phase.

I asked them to complete the task, then to tell me about their overall experience, and finally to share any thoughts.

Task 1: Get into someone’s profile and search for a specific post of that account.

"How can this feature doesn’t exist. This will save me so much time of searching.”

All of the users appreciated this new feature and felt that will simplify the action of searching some posts they wanted to come back.

“The experience was fine, but I don’t think it was completely intuitive for me that the search icon was used for searching that new user’s instagram feed.”
Testers were confused about the new icon. Even though they completed the task, they needed some time to realize that the icon in the profile was for the profile feed.

“For me it was intuitive that the search icon was for the specific account’s feed because it was next to the name”.
Users liked the fact that the new search icon was on top, next to the profile’s name.

Task 2: Get into your “Saved” collections and search for a specific post.

“Very intuitive and friendly”.
All of the users found that the searching icon was easy to identify and that it was clear that it was about searching into the Saved Collections.

“I would add filters to make a quicker search, because sometimes you have too many posts saved about the same topic.”
Users thought that it would be user to have the possibility of filter the words just as Instagram does it in the Explore section.

UI Component Kit

High Fi Wireframes

Based of the previous feedback from Mid fi wireframes I designed High Fi wireframes with its protoype.

Home Page

Menu

Search

Search profile

Profile

Post

Posts options

Home Page

Profile account

Saved Search

Saved Collections

My Profile

Posts

05 PROTOTYPE

Prototype

After designing the High Fi wireframes I created a prototype on Figma. This has 2 flows, because I wanted to try the two new features separately. Both have the same screen as a starting point which is the home page on Instagram app.

06 TEST

Usability Testing

I conducted a product test to evaluate the ease of the tasks, their user-friendliness, and the utility of the new tasks. Live testing was performed with six individuals for the two tasks outlined below:

  1. Go into the “Explore” section, search for the profile of marywelsh. Get into her profile and search for a “lemon pie” within her feed. Click the first lemon pie and get to the post.

  2. Go to your profile. Into your menu, go to you “Saved” collections. When you get there, search for a “lemon pie” and click the first one. Get to the post.

Both of the tasks were completed in their 100%, but there were some comments. To organize the findings, I created an affinity map and wrote the successes and concerns differentiating both tasks with different colors.

Affinity Map

Following the affinity map, I created a prioritization matrix to determine the essential iterations that would have a significant impact and effectively address user confusion. These iterations were assessed based on their impact and the effort required for implementation.

Iterate

Based on the Usability Testing and its findings, I did three iterations to improve the product.

Problem:
The user was confused because when writing lemon pie in the app, it didn’t change to lemon pie options of posts.

Iteration:
Once the user writes lemon pie, there are posts related to that words.

Problem:
Users have different versions of instagram. For some of them, the words that appears right under the search bar were confusing when starting to write what they wanted to search.

Problem:
Users thought that the filters for their saved collections were not appropriated because they didn’t save accounts or audio or places so they doesn’t apply. Also they thought that the users usually doesn’t have too many posts with the same words, so they were not necessary.

Iteration:
The “trending words” were eliminated, so that the user could have a cleaner space to search for what is looking for.

Iteration:
The filters were eliminated.

I decided to move forward with the must have and nice to have features. With that in mind, I created a Site Map of the app, showing where the new features are going to be located.

Finally, after two rounds of iterations, I got to do the prototype of the final product in Figma. Please click and enjoy it.

Final Product

Conclusions

Project Takeaways

While the project concluded successfully after the second round of testing, there are still potential areas to explore if it were to continue:

  1. User Impact of New Feature:
    One of the most significant takeaways from the project was the realization that adding a new feature can have a substantial impact on the user experience. Participants expressed their enthusiasm for the proposed solution, acknowledging its potential to save them valuable time during their Instagram searches. The positive feedback from users reinforced the importance of understanding user needs and pain points during the design process.

  2. Value of Early Testing:
    Conducting usability testing after the mid-fi wireframes led me to save time because I iterated before moving on to high-fi wireframes and be sure that I was moving on with a good design product.

Future Considerations

  1. Continued Testing and Iteration:
    To ensure the product remains user-centric and effective, ongoing testing and iterative improvements should be considered. Additional user feedback and data could reveal further insights and opportunities for enhancement.

  2. Further Research on Instagram Search Experience:
    Continually researching and analyzing the Instagram search experience could shed light on whether the implemented feature has indeed improved the overall user experience or if there are other aspects that could be addressed for further enhancement.
    By taking these future considerations into account, the project could continue to evolve and adapt to meet the needs of its users effectively.

See my other projects: