Member-only story
My relationship with Instagram began in 2012. At that time I was a young university student who scraped together my savings to buy a 2nd hand iPhone 3G just so I could keep up with my friends and download this hot new app called “Instagram”. I can just imagine the increase of iphone sales when Instagram was only available on ios ( not that they really needed it to boost sales). As soon as I discovered the app, my entire world changed after posting my first ever photo of my yoga mat.
Alright that’s a complete exaggeration, but creatively it did provide an outlet that allowed me to document my life like a visual journal. I have to admit I was an editing/filter junky, but that’s what early adopters of Instagram were all about!
Instagram also introduced me to the world of Instagram “community”, introduced me to a local photographer (aka first guy I’ve ever dated) and it forced me to discover and explore new places and see things with more of an artistic lens. I’ve been through a lot with this app! As a veteran Instagram user, the app has always been clear and easy to use because the designers behind the app have embraced the 5 broad categories for usability heuristics: Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors, and Satisfaction.
Learnability (Visibility & Feedback, Mapping, Affordances, Constraints Consistency, Help)
- Visibility & Feedback: As an app, it’s pretty straightforward and doesn’t have much of a learning curve, though Instagram does provide short prompts such as the example below to educate users what each icon does and or when new features roll out.
When you sign up for Instagram, the on-boarding prompts are short and effective. The app allows users to play with the interface by themselves and teaches them as they go, similar to a well designed video game.
