Intro

When I was challenged to take a portion of the Instagram app and rethink and redesign it. It threw me for a loop. I often think of different things in apps that I like or don't like. Transitions, app design, behaviours. The way you upload a photo, post an update, tag a location. What I don't often do is get around to being pro-active about flushing out my ideas. Sometimes they end up in sketches. Other times their initial thinking make their way into a dribbble shot or even into a client project.

The rest of this page is a collection of thoughts, sketches and semi-tight comps. My goal was to help show how I work. What I thought about and why I did what. This is a beginning of a larger conversation. I hope it continues...

Process

With this project I followed a process I've done for many many years. Sketching. I often find sketching a great way to get ideas out. For this project I spent some spare time getting a screw taken out of my cars tire (second one in 3 weeks ugh...) sketching on my daughters iPad with the paper app (thanks em!) I followed up with a bunch of sketches and notes in a pad at home. Since I don't have a whiteboard at home I was reduced to paper and the iPad. But often if I can get myself in front of a large whiteboard I love to sketch big and standing up. Even better is sketching with people on the same project as me as I'm a fond believer in collaboration within projects. Below are the sketches I captured in the beginning stages of this project.

Sketches

These are some of the sketches I made in the early stages and throughout my tinkering with this idea. While the ink ones have been photographed. I did some on the iPad with the paper app. Click here to view the Paper app sketches in PDF.

Wireframes

These are some cleaned up wireframes from the original sketches. I've been making my own wireframes to varying degrees in Illustrator for a few years and have settled on a style that often works for me and the agency life I lead. Truthfully in the agency world wireframing and user flows aren't that common in most of the places I've worked in 12 years. These are a culmination of personal experience and the interactions I've had with friends during my career.

Ideas

I settled on the Explore tab within Instagram since I felt it was an area that could use some reinvention. When I picked this area to explore I did so with a few points in mind that I thought might be intriguing to users.

• promote engagement/exploration: I've often turned to the explore tab when I've exhausted my stream. Now don't get me wrong I've found a few people to follow from the explore tab. But often I find its a repository for one direction photos and celebrities. Both of which have found their place amongst Instagram. But optionally seeing whats trending with hashtags rather than just being popular could open up a new stream of up to the second content.
• hashtag pulse: much in the same way hashtags trend on twitter I'm sure that they can and do trend on Instagram. If I had a way of browsing those active tags I could dip into streams of content I may have missed by not knowing a specific tag
• Instagram weekly hashtag project: I actually really love this project and if I happen to spot an update in my stream I usually dive in. But I know that not everybody may follow Instagram on Instagram (swear I'm this close to an Xzibit joke) so a way to showcase these could be really neat.
• Partner Content: I know that brands are on Instagram. I think its awesome. It's exactly the type of content I want from the brands that are important to me. If a brand I follow on Instagram is actively using a specific hashtag could I be shown that content as a set? that would be rad.
• Events: Slight play on Partner Content but you get the idea. World Cup, Olympics, Orange October. Events at a world scale where people are capturing those moments for all to enjoy
• Offer a unique way to add to each event stream: It's one thing to have access to great streams of content. To follow people. But to jump right into and add to these streams is just as important.