Combining the Finsta and Rinsta: Instagram UX Case Study
By: Amanda Qiu
Tags: Case Study, UI Design, Prototyping, Instagram, Product Design

What’s wrong with Instagram?

Why don’t you post on Instagram? — Instagram is where people present themselves in the way they want other people perceive themselves. One look at your feed and people can tell a lot about what kind of people you hang out with, the places you go to, and activities you partake in — and make assumptions about it.

Why don’t you just curate your feed to show your best life? — That’s the issue with Instagram. People pick and choose the best parts their life so it perpetuates unrealistic/distorted ideas of a “perfect life.” People will judge you if you don’t fit the mold they want to see, instead of posting the pictures in the way you want.

Why don’t you just post what you want to? — There’s a dilemma between me posting pictures people usually see (selfies, hanging out with friends, events, etc.) and posting the pictures I like. I would love to post pictures of food and travel scenery but I feel obligated to post pictures of my social life, because that is what a ‘rinsta’ is for.

Why can’t you post all of that combined? — It doesn’t make my feed look good and it doesn’t match. So, I have a lot of different accounts for different my different interests.

Do people feel the same way ? — User Research

My goal was to see if other people felt the same way about posting, and why they were not inclined to post their genuine lives and interests. After user research, here are my key insights:

“I want to post my genuine life on Instagram, but I can’t because …”

Posting all of my interests makes my feed look messy.

“I won’t post my art pictures because it will make my feed look inconsistent.” “If something doesn’t look good in my feed, I will archive it.” “I try to make my feed pretty and aesthetically pleasing.”

2. There are posts that I only want to share with close friends.

“My less close friends/followers won’t want to see my art.” “Most people have spam accounts.” “ I do not know why I get nervous, maybe because so many people can see it and I don’t know many of the people as well.” “I don’t want some people to see that side of me.”

3. I feel the need to post only perfect pictures of me and my friends because likes and comments bring validation.

“If a lot of my close friends don’t comment or like my post, I think it might be a bad post.” “ I need validation.” “Attention seeking,” “Virtue signaling” “How do I look in this picture? Will people think this is pretty?” “It lets me know who fucks with me, or seem like they fuck with me.”

Yes. People feel that they can not post their genuine lives and interests on Instagram.

How do I fix this? — Brainstorming

With a group of diverse individuals, we began to brainstorm the issues we see with Instagrams and potential solutions. We focused on how to make Instagram a more convenient, enjoyable, and genuine place to post.

Brainstorming how we might solve Instagram’s issues

Brainstorming features that could be solutions

Hundreds of sticky notes later, we found that the potential design solutions to improve the platform could be separated into these categories:

Organization/Layout User’s Self Confidence Social Interactions Life Improvement (Interest Groups, Businesses)

My Proposal:

To fix Instagram’s issue, I came up with the idea of Customized Feeds. This feature would allow you to post whatever you want, to whomever you want.

This feature will consist of the ability to:

Combine your separate accounts into one. Post all of your different interests to different categories. Pick and choose who you want to see each feed. Name, edit, and customize each feed to how you like.

Customized feeds improve the organization of the app because it allows you to post all of your interests along with social interactions and a user’s confidence in posting by allowing to customize who can see each feed. Users are now able to post all of their genuine lives and interests without fear of judgement or aesthetic restrictions.