2024
Instagram / Meta
Product / UI design / UX collaboration
Product Designer
In 2024 the Instagram design team worked to create a cohesive, predictable interaction system for IG video ads. When a user taps on a video ads on their Feed, we proposed that bringing them to the Reels viewer, with a bottom sheet to shop from, would help them more easily access their post-click destination. We call this experience "Watch & Browse."
Create an entirely new set of components and user flow that would clearly improve video ad digestibility and interactivity.
Product designer
Animator
Design
Project Management
We realized through testing that users tended to struggle with their ads experience when shopping on Reels. This problem would become more and more important as video content made up over 50% of what's posted on Instagram. So why aren't users tapping on the CTA?
Our data and user research suggested that people who tap on a video ad on Instagram are usually interested in learning more about it but struggle to get the information they need to make a confident, informed decision to move to IAB. The problem is users want two things at once: they want to focus on the video, while also going deeper on the product offer, for which the website is best for.
How do we design a solution that gives our users the best of both worlds?
In 2023 we started building the first iterations of Feed Watch & Browse to accomplish a seamless video post-tap experience, and we have continued iterating on it. I started by collaborating with our engineers and data science team to get a better understanding of our business goals and user needs around video interaction. After that, I worked with my design team to brainstorm a breadth of ideas and concepts and created two main approaches.
To guide our design thinking, we wanted to create an experience that was:
Predictable: Create an experience that’s predictable to people and aligned with Instagram values values (simplicity, craft).
Informative: Deliver value to people by making the product information more easily accessible when there’s clear intent signal.
Performant: Deliver value to advertisers and Meta through business outcomes and incremental revenue.
With a clear scope and having exhausted the breadth of iterations, I developed a system of principals to guide us in determining the best design solution.
01
Predictable: Create an experience that’s predictable to people and aligned with Instagram values values (simplicity, craft).
02
Informative: Deliver value to people by making the product information more easily accessible when there’s clear intent signal.
03
Performant: Deliver value to advertisers and Meta through business outcomes and incremental revenue.
Inter was chosen for its classic, neutral, Helvetica-like qualities and it's legibility at small scales.
Using the four hues of the SimpleStage identity as a starting point, I expanded the color palette to accommodate the needs of the platform’s complex dashboard system.
I created and maintained the component library throughout the design and development process, which successfully served as the single source of truth for all team members and ensured visual consistency across the platform.
The final design aims to reduce the friction typically experienced when working within multiple platforms to complete different tasks. By consolidating these tasks into one unified platform collaboration is easier, workflows are more efficient, and projects are more organized.
Centralized hub to view all projects and their current status designed for quick-reference and glanceability
Displays all requests, messages, and activity for each project in both list and gallery layouts to accommodate users preferences.
Each request type features layout options relevant to the user and the kind of tasks they will be working on.
A pinning system was developed as a part of the annotation tool to make it clear which pin is in focus at any step in the bug tracking task flow.
This project launched in early 2024 and gave the company significant revenue gain. You can try out the experience now on the Instagram app (iOS and Android).
