5 Day Challenge: Alternate Microinteractions — Day 1

When using an app on your mobile device to achieve one task, do you ever ask yourself: “What if I can do that using a different interaction?”

If you’re as obsessed about streamlining microinteractions as I am, you certainly can relate. There are interactions we engage in every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, yet don’t really think about their composition much. Interactions like swiping right to unlock your phone, swiping down to refresh a feed, or even turning the faucet to wash your hands.

“The difference between a product you love and a product you tolerate is often the microinteractions you have with it” — Dan Saffer

We don’t notice them until something goes wrong; good microinteractions have the potential to make our lives a whole lot easier.

I decided to challenge myself for 5 days and come up with use cases we all are accustomed to and provide an alternative solution to it.

Day 1 — Posting on Instagram

The first use case I would like to tackle is posting an image or video on Instagram.

Taking a picture in Instagram and posting it to your feed currently is a 5-step process, adding some friction to the flow of new content.

What if posting an image on Instagram is as instantaneous as capturing a shot?

In this alternate solution, we are scrapping nearly the entire flow of posting a new picture, ultimately translating the generation of new content from a process of perfection to one that is spontaneous and raw.