It's very difficult to find someone who, at least, has never heard of Instagram. One of the most popular social networks in the world also had to undergo a process of Redesign.

Ian Spalter, Product Designer, then Head of Design at Instagram, was responsible for coordinating the entire process of redesigning the application. Understand how this challenge was and what processes and steps were fundamental to this project.

*This article was based on the episode of the series Abstract: The Art of Design, available on Netflix.

What is redesign?

Redesign is the process of Reformulation of the design already existing of any product, software, application, etc.

It is a very important process and must be done with a lot of prudence.

O redesign should not be done just because the customer got tired of the current design. It is necessary to have real and necessary reasons to start this type of project for it to be successful.

We can list a few reasons why redesign can be useful:

• Decrease in sales and revenue;
• Reduction of Market Share;
• Reduced click-through rate;
• Low conversion rate;
• Reduction in the number of product downloads;
• Reduction of user time on the interface.

Therefore, the redesign of a product must be well aligned with the company objectives and needs applicant. If that's not the case, the redesign may even harm your results.

Reading Tip: Redesign - Are You Sure?

Ian Spalter

Ian Spalter is a renowned Product Designer in Silicon Valley, with one out of every seven people in the world using a product supervised by him.

Before becoming Head of Design at Instagram, Ian was part of the board of several large companies, such as youtube and Foursquare.

Spalter also supervised the project of FuelBand of Nike, where she had the challenge of making a pedometer wearable, wearable, and attractive to people.

In other words, Ian Spalter is a highly qualified Product Designer, and it's no wonder that he's one of the leaders of the Instagram design team.

Instagram

One of the most famous social networks in the world, the photo and video sharing app needs no introduction.

The platform has more than 1 billion active users, since 2008, and Brazil is second in the list of countries with the highest number of users, second only to the USA.

Because it is a large social network, your redesign impacts several people, from celebrities to political figures. So it was a big challenge for Ian to have participated in this project.

The challenges of the project

At first, Ian had two objectives in the project with Instagram:

• Re-branding of the platform;
• Redesign the App, making it more modern.

It's not even necessary to say the size of responsibility and the pressure that came along with that project.

As already mentioned, Instagram has users of all kinds: celebrities, politicians, brands, and companies from all over the world.

If any decision were made wrong, the loss it would be gigantic.

Re-branding

To work on the new Instagram identity, Ian was concerned about what the essential elements that already existed in the current logo, that users would remember right away.

To do this, he did a job of survey together with his own team, and asked that each member Draw, in 10 seconds, the Instagram logo in the best way they could remember.

With this exercise/research, Ian succeeded Separate what was essential and what was expendable from the logo and was able to work on top of realization of the people/users of the platform.

Based on these insights, Ian and his team started building what became the new Instagram logo we know today.

Feedback from users

Every change brings strangeness and discomfort.

And it was no different from what happened with the launch of the new Instagram logo.

The team began to suffer user attacks of the internet and there were articles and articles criticizing the decision. But deep down, they were feeling each other snug with the change.

And they couldn't be more certain. O The growth of active users on the app has exceeded 1 billion and this achievement is the result, among other things, of the work of Ian and his team.

Um Efficient redesign is linked to company objectives and not to personal tastes. Instagram's growth from The redesign of the logo and the app proves that the right decisions were taken to improve the company's results.

Reading Tip: Business Design - Why Is It Important to Know About Business?

App redesign

In addition to the logo, Ian remodeled the app's design, making it more unsophisticated and more centered for user experience.

In this sense, the colors and buttons were removed, doing what the focus of the user experience were shared photos, which is the central purpose of Instagram.

One trait that Ian is proud of in his team is that they think in a way integrated and in how things, within the app, if Connect and they move. The concern is with User Journey and not with separate layouts and designs, without connection.

In addition, the team sets up several prototypes faithful to test the usability of the new design. This step is very important, since it is by testing the prototype that the user's experience and how the user reacts and interacts with the new design are evaluated.

New project: user profile redesign

After spearheading the two projects, redesigning the logo and the app, Ian's next challenge is to redesign the experience with user profile.

In this project, the challenge was to redesign the part of the application in which the user projects themselves and describes who they are. So it's something quite touchy.

For this purpose, many meetings were held and, based on them, were held tests to understand whether users whether or not they were comfortable with the changes. After that moment of Feedback, the team designed new solutions.

An interesting part of working with app design is thinking about impact that these changes will have on the user's life. For example, Ian's team wants to reduce the importance that the number of followers has in the user's life. Of course, this change must be made with caution, but it is something important that you can remove anxiety and social pressure through a new design.

Reading Tip: What is Design Thinking?

What can we learn from Ian Spalter?

Ian proves that Product Design and UX aren't random, disjointed jobs. It takes a lot of research, tests, workshops, and hundreds of meetings for a UX project - whether redesign or not - to be a success.

We can see some quick learnings we learned from this case study:

1. Know what you're trying to solve: it is important to have a definition of the problem, to understand why we want to solve it and what are the benefits of the project;
2. Be rational: don't make design decisions based on your personal tastes. Do research and decide what is best for the user and the company;
3. Research and test: always do research with users, test the design with them, get feedback, adapt and start the cycle again;
4. Use prototypes: they are essential for users to experience the changes;
5. Think about the business: UX is a strategic area and must be aligned with product objectives and business objectives;
6. Design Impacts: think about what the impact will be on user behavior when a new design is launched.

To deepen your knowledge

To deepen the learning from the case study above, we have separated some articles that are very useful:

• What is Design Thinking and How to Apply It to Your Projects
• Business Design: Why Is It Important to Know About Business?
• User Journey - What It Is and Its Importance in UX Design
• Interaction Design: the 6 fundamental principles
• Usability Testing: How to Prepare and Conduct?
• All About Agile: The Philosophy That Will Make You Much More Efficient

Additionally, we encourage you to watch the episode “Ian Spalter: Digital Product Design” From the Series Abstract: The Art of Design, available on Netflix so that they can better understand how this Instagram redesign project was carried out and to better understand what the job of a Product Designer is like.