WHY!!? Instagram's New Design

A BIG CHANGE?

As of today, if you update your phone and go to open up Instagram - you'll notice something has changed!

The iconic icon (I'm hilarious) has been replaced with a much simpler and bolder design. The cartoony depiction of a camera - based upon the legendary Polaroid Land Camera 1000 - has been replaced with a clean minimalist, and colourful design.

This change is also seen inside the app, with many of the blocks of colour (e.g. the dark blue banner at the top) chucked out and replaced with a black and white layout. As well as that, icons replaced with simpler monochrome counterparts.

IF IT ISN'T BROKE, WHY FIX IT?

Instagram is one of the most instantly recognisable apps that appears on our home-screen - often taking one of the most coveted spots on the landing page. Why would Instagram (and Facebook) risk alienating users by changing it's whole look?

The first clues can be spotted in the updates notes on the app store:

"Our updated icon stays true to the camera and rainbow. The simpler app design puts the focus on your posts and keeps your features in the same place"

The icon *is* familiar, because it keeps the recognisable bits of the previous logo - the "camera" shape and "rainbow" colour scheme.

Personally, I think the 'rainbow' has been lost in translation from the previous icon (again originally based on the rainbow marks on the Kodak Instamatic).

Instead what we have is an iOS 7-style tropical-flavoured gradient; which has used the same colours, but loses some of it's character.

This seems a bit 2013 to me. However, the warm colours signify a warm sunset - a common topic of images posted using the app. (We all secretly enjoy sharing amazing sunsets captured on holiday - to share with friends stuck at home!)

The key factor in this redesign, as stated in the app notes, is simplicity.

Simply put, having the icon for your photography app display a camera communicates quickly and effectively what the app does. The same goes for the user interface inside the app. This approach to designing things is called skeuomorphism.

When you use your smartphone camera you'll likely hear a shutter sound (try it!). That's not the camera. It's an artificial sound programmed into the software so users recognise they've taken a picture! It's details like these that make apps more satisfying; and initially familiar when we first use them.

Skeuomorphism can make all the difference in new and crowded markets, where people are pushing each other aside for space on the app store shelf. You might have an amazing photography app - but if people spot it on the app store and don't instantly know what it is - you lose customers.

This is something worth thinking about for when the next big bang in technology happens!

WAVING GOODBYE TO THE OLD

But now that Instagram has been established as a cultural phenomena in it's own right - its design no longer needs explain what it does. We know already! So the 'volume' of skeuomorphism in it's design can be 'turned down' from 11, to closer to a 3.

This allows for a simpler design. Inside the app, this means less distraction through now unnecessary colours and icons (design clutter). Instagram's head of design says as much in their Medium post about the change:

"While the icon is a colorful doorway into the Instagram app, once inside the app, we believe the color should come directly from the community’s photos and videos."

Ultimately, this works because we have become intimately familiar with Instagram's layout and functions. It might not have worked as well when it was first released!

The most important things we see in Instagram are the images we share, and those shared with us. In a photography app - how images are displayed on screen is possible the most important concern for designers.

As Instagram suggest - now it is established, a simpler design helps the app can now 'get out of the way' so that our main focus is on our photos.

Just don't expect the shutter sound to disappear any time soon (people still find that way too weird!)

For more information, check out Instagram's blog post on the change!

What do you think? Leave a comment below or tweet me @martinsaidthis

[Taken from my blog: www.thesocialcamera.wordpress.com - come and say hi!]