Instagram samples

Background

As a Content Design Lead at Instagram, I was responsible for overseeing design work in the Friending and NUX teams. I’ll upload more detailed case studies soon (aka once the NDAs allow it), but in the mean time you can see a selection of screens from a few projects below.

Elevating friends

A top priority in Instagram for the next few years is to elevate the concept of 'friends' within Instagram. Specifically, the focus is on upleveling the idea that friends are followers you follow back.

As the design lead for this project, I chose to prioritze two areas to start our tests: a new tab focused only on friends, and custom notifications surrounding friending moments.

Android improvements

With support from AI-powered tools, I single-handedly designed, coded, tested, and launched multiple features for Instagram focused on improving the Android experience. You can see a few examples of those changes below.

In all of the below examples, the original version is seen on the left.

Improving the number of accounts shown is a known metric driver.

For my tests, I removed dividers that broke Design System convention and reduced spacing where possible between categories.

Simultaneously, I created a test focused on redesigning the Android follow requests row to match the iOS experience.

Re-introducing the right font weight to buttons in Android helped drive key metrics (DAU and reciprocal follows).

Social context wasn't always appearing in user suggestions on Android due to a bug. Through AI coding explorations, I was able to rectify this in app.

Additional screens

In addition to the above, here are some other screens I worked on focused on building connections in both Instagram and Threads.