SORTING FEATURE
CASE STUDY
ROLE
DURATION
Solo UX/UI Designer
1 week
TOOLS
FIGMA
Year
12/01/2024
Design Challenge
DesignLab Academy Project
Instagram’s growing popularity has made it essential for users to efficiently navigate profiles, especially those with extensive content. This project focuses on designing a sorting feature to enhance navigation and improve the user experience.
Experience the full functionality of the new feature—click to explore the interactive prototype.
Background
Instagram is a platform for sharing visually-driven content like photos, videos, and stories. Despite its popularity, the platform’s profile navigation options remain limited. For profiles with high volumes of posts, users must endlessly scroll to find specific content, which can be frustrating. Currently, profiles offer only basic divisions—posts, reels, and tagged photos—and limited customization options like pinning up to three posts. These limitations hinder personalization and user experience, especially for active users and businesses who need better organization and discoverability for their content.
Problem Statement
Users struggle to locate specific posts on content-heavy Instagram profiles due to the lack of sorting and filtering options. Profiles are static, with posts displayed in chronological order by upload date, leading to inefficiency and frustration. The lack of advanced navigation tools reduces the platform's usability for both individuals and businesses.
Solution
As part of this project, I explored several potential solutions to improve user experience and profile navigation on Instagram, such as advanced sorting options, customizable layouts, content-type filtering, and moodboards. However, based on user research and the scope of the project, I focused on designing the advanced sorting feature, as it addressed the most pressing user need: making profiles easier to navigate and organize.
How does Sorting Feature work?
INTERVIEWS
One-on-one conversations to explore user challenges, preferences, and reactions to proposed solutions.
Affinity Mapping
I created an affinity map to synthesize insights from user research and organize findings into meaningful patterns. The mapping provided a clear structure to prioritize design solutions and address user needs effectively.
This process helped me identify five key topics
Profile Organization Challenges
Navigation and Search Functionality
Feature Recommendations
User Preferences and Behavior
Top-Priority Features and Updates.
Key Insights
After completing the SWOT analysis, identifying key learnings, and uncovering opportunities, I moved on to the Define stage. I started with crafting Point of View (POV) statements and How Might We (HMW) questions to clearly define the problem and explore creative ways to address it through the sorting feature.
The sorting feature allows users to quickly organize Instagram profile posts by criteria such as Newest to Oldest, Oldest to Newest, Most Liked, Most Shared, or by specific hashtags. This intuitive dropdown menu ensures users can easily discover the content they care about, streamlining profile navigation and enhancing their overall experience.
SURVEY
Broader feedback to validate features, identify trends, and complement interviews.
During the research phase, I discovered that the sorting feature was the most valuable and necessary solution among my four ideas. It directly addressed a key user frustration—navigating high volumes of content—and emerged as the top priority. This insight guided my decision to focus on implementing and refining the sorting feature to meet user needs and enhance their experience.
Users Want More Control: People showed interest in having more ways to organize their profiles, like changing layouts or filtering posts by type.
Other Platforms Miss This Too: Platforms like TikTok and Snapchat don’t fully solve this problem either, which shows how important and useful a sorting feature would be.
POV & HMW
Design Process
EMPATHIZE
EMPATHIZE
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Reviewed platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest to identify opportunities and ensure differentiation.
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest to understand how top platforms handle content interaction and identify gaps in profile organization. I combined this with user research, including interviews and surveys, to validate that the sorting feature was the most valuable solution, ensuring it directly addressed user frustrations and enhanced navigation efficiency.
DEFINE
DEFINE
I want to explore ways to find specific content quickly on someone’s profile to help Instagram users save time and avoid frustration. I’m focusing on providing sorting and filtering options, like hashtags, likes, or upload dates, to make profile navigation faster and more enjoyable.
PERSONA
After completing the POV statements and HMW questions, I created a persona to represent the target users. This helped me stay focused on their needs, frustrations, and goals throughout the design process, ensuring the sorting feature would effectively address their challenges.
Goals
Understand user needs for profile customization and organization on Instagram.
Validate the effectiveness of proposed solutions for improving profile browsing.
Enhance navigation efficiency and user satisfaction by addressing common frustrations.
Create intuitive and impactful features that cater to both casual users and businesses.
Leverage insights from user behavior and competitor analysis to refine design decisions.
Research methods
How might we help Instagram users quickly find specific content on someone’s profile, reducing the time spent scrolling through all their posts?
IDEATE
IDEATE
Business Goals & User Goals & Common Goals
Following the creation of the persona, I defined Business Goals, User Goals, and Common Goals. This step ensured alignment between user needs and Instagram's objectives, helping to prioritize features like the sorting option that would enhance user satisfaction while supporting business growth.
Business Goals
Increase User Engagement: Encourage users to spend more time on Instagram by improving search, filtering, and sorting features.
Attract More Users: Create features that work for creative professionals like Anna and everyday users like Emily.
Help Users Discover More: Let people find the content they care about faster, helping creators and businesses get noticed.
Keep People Using Instagram: Fix frustrations with navigation and organization to stop users from leaving.
Be the Best App: Make Instagram known for being the easiest and most fun platform to use.
Common Goals
Easy Content Discovery: Filters like hashtags, likes, or date help users find content quickly, keeping them engaged.
Support Personalization: Customization options make profiles unique, encouraging users to explore features.
Improve Organization: Sorting and folders keep profiles organized, enhancing user satisfaction.
Keep Users Engaged: Simple, time-saving features ensure enjoyment, boosting activity and ad opportunities.
USER FLOW
Keeping in mind that the project focused on adding a specific feature, I skipped creating a detailed feature roadmap or sitemap. Instead, I concentrated on what was most relevant — a user flow demonstrating Profile Photo Sorting, which outlined how users would navigate and interact with the new sorting functionality.
User flow: Sorting Posts on Profile
BRANDING
Instagram's branding is well-known and familiar to its users, so I made it a priority to maintain consistency while designing the additional sorting feature. I ensured the feature seamlessly integrated with Instagram's existing design language by using the same colors, typography, and overall style. This approach was critical to keeping the interface intuitive and ensuring a smooth user experience without introducing unnecessary complexity. By aligning with the platform's branding, the new feature feels natural and easy to adopt for users.
WIREFRAMES
I began by creating sketches of low-fidelity designs for the Instagram sorting feature to explore layout ideas and user interactions. Once I had a clear concept, I moved directly to high-fidelity designs to ensure the feature aligned with Instagram’s branding and provided a polished, intuitive experience for users.
Find Content Fast: Use filters to sort posts by hashtags, likes, or date without scrolling forever.
Simplified Organization: Save and organize posts or content inspiration in categories (e.g., folders, mood boards).
Professional Showcasing: For users like Anna, maintain a visually appealing and well-organized profile to attract followers and clients.
Customize Profiles: Rearrange posts and design profiles to match personal style.
Save Time: Use tools that make finding and managing content quick and easy.
See What Matters: Easily find trending or important posts based on interests.
Strong Performance: The sorting feature is generally well-received, with 100% success in locating the icon and selecting sorting options.
High Satisfaction: All participants reported that the sorting options fully met their needs and expectations (5/5).
Discoverability Issues: Two participants experienced confusion with the arrow-based icon design, suggesting a need for improvement.
Actionable Insight: Refining the icon design could enhance discoverability and reduce confusion while maintaining the strong alignment with user expectations and satisfaction.
Overall, the feature was well-received, with participants expressing satisfaction and excitement about its potential use on Instagram.
After creating high-fidelity prototypes, I conducted usability testing to evaluate the sorting feature. The testing focused on task completion, ease of use, and user satisfaction. The results showed:
Summary of usability test - 2 round - high fidelity wireframes
Task Completion: All participants successfully completed the task.
Ease of Use: Participants rated the feature 5/5 for usability, confirming it was intuitive and easy to use.
User Feedback: Most users found the sorting button easy to locate, but a few noted the icon could be clearer.
Additional Round of Testing
To address the icon clarity issue, I conducted an additional round of testing with 8 participants to select the best sorting icon. The results were conclusive, with 7 out of 8 participants preferring the original icon (number 1). This confirmed that no further changes were needed.
Based on user research, there is a strong need to expand beyond the sorting feature and implement the rest of the ideas identified during the project. These include:
Customizable Layouts: Allow users to rearrange posts on their profile to highlight specific content and improve personalization.(High Priority)
Content-Type Filtering: Introduce options to view only photos, reels, or videos for a more streamlined browsing experience. (Medium Priority)
This project addressed a key user frustration on Instagram—navigating and organizing profiles—by introducing an advanced sorting feature. User research and testing validated its effectiveness, with participants finding it intuitive and helpful.
The process also identified opportunities for future improvements, such as customizable layouts and content-type filtering, to further enhance profile organization and the user experience. This project highlights the importance of user-centered design in solving real problems.
The Power of User Research: User research and testing are essential for guiding decisions and ensuring solutions align with real user needs.
Data-Driven Decisions: Making decisions based on data rather than assumptions leads to more effective and impactful designs.
Diverse Feedback is Crucial: What seems clear to me might not be clear to others, emphasizing the importance of thorough testing and gathering input from a variety of users.
PROTOTYPING
&
TESTING
&
PROTOTYPING & TESTING &
Summary of user testing - 1 round - low fidelity wireframes
The objective of the first user test on low-fidelity wireframes was to evaluate how easily users could locate the sorting icon button and understand their expectations after clicking the sorting button.