Probes, Interviews, and Findings
Interacting with the Audience and Real World
Creating Probes
During affinity diagramming, we found that users seem to follow self-enforced rules on Instagram, which we referred to as ‘unspoken rules’. In addition, we found finsta to be an interesting topic to explore, because people seem rely on finstas to post their ‘real’ photos and emotions.
We’re still not quite sure about a solidified direction/deliverable yet, but we hope that the probe would help us define what is relevant to our audience so that we can set our minds on an intervention.
We crafted two simple questions to ask our audience.
- What unspoken rules of Instagram do you follow?
- What does “finsta” provide that Instagram doesn’t?
Poster
We put the two questions on posters that visually align with the Instagram format+vivid colors for easy recognition. It would also allow viewers to know what the probe is about without having to read the prompt.
We posted the probes in different campus locations and allowed people to write their response on them. We hope to get enough responses by the end of the prose duration (2 days).
Interview
We also decided to ask 5–10 different people individually to get a more personal, in-depth response to the 2 questions. This allows us to ask follow-up questions such as “How do you feel about unspoken rules/finstas?”, “Why do you think they exist?”or “Is Instagram for you or your followers?”
We would also take screenshots of each responses and summarize important points/similarities we notice in the separate interviews.
Probe Results & Findings
After the weekend, we collected and compiled our probe results. It was interesting to see how similar patterns arose from the two different probes.
We listed all the responses from the poster probe into Google Sheets and color coded them based on different categories (bolded text). Then we rated them based on count to see the most popular factors in each question.
We also shared screenshots from the messenger probe and talked about the interviewees’ reasons for why they like/dislike such rules or follow them and what finstas really mean to them.
From these results, we highlighted some important findings.
Unspoken rules:
- “Spamming” is bad because it may bother people (followers)
- Curate your content: profile, captions, photos
- Do not like old photos because it may seem creepy
- Time your posts so that they get “maximum engagement”
Finstas:
- Can post any content without being judged
- Surfaces real/personal emotions and thoughts
- Privacy from (usually) only having close friends follow
What was interesting was that all these rules were enforced, which resulted in the creation of finsta (where people can post more liberally), but there’s really nothing stopping users from doing what they do on finsta on their real insta.
Another, bigger question that we had was, again, if all these rules to make you seem a certain way, is Instagram for you or your followers?
Next Steps
Going off of the probe findings, we wanted to use the next class’s speed dating session as a small workshop to ask more questions to our classmates.
- What is your relationship to Instagram? Can you give an analogy and elaborate?
- How is Instagram reflective of yourself?
- How much is Instagram for you or for your followers?
- Do you have a finsta? Do you follow someone’s finsta?
- What made you decide to get a finsta?
- What would have to change about Instagram as a platform so that you don’t feel a need to make multiple accounts?
We hope to find more details on why users feel more comfortable on finsta and what Instagram really means to them. Perhaps we can aim to raise awareness on whether touch enforcement and curation really matter (to viewers) and make Instagram more for you than others?
