Instagram Stories | UX Challenges
UX flaws that make social media management a constant struggle for brands
Positioned in the spectrum of Digital Marketing, I’m a social media professional living a life drowning in the sea that is Instagram.
While at work, I’m constantly on the platform — curating my brand’s feed and stories to inspire and engage our followers; off of work, I am that regular follower getting inspired & engaged by a plethora of influences and impulsively falling prey to the very persuasive ‘call to actions’.
IG as a marketing platform is our canvas to interact with followers. Being storytellers, we ensure that we’re top players in the game when it comes to our narrative and aesthetics. We tend to think of ourselves as digital superheroes — using IG almost like a design software — striving to create distinct, creative content.
“Instagram as a brand is my absolute favourite! I’m moved by their unrelenting efforts to make it better. Every update leaves me in awe with so much more that I can do. But unfortunately, leaves me with another set of challenges to conquer.”
As a brand, we collaborate with other brands and influencers on a regular basis. By default, that involves reposting of posts shared on other handles as stories on our handle, in a very small time window to keep up with the momentum of the situation. This is where the nightmare begins.
The illustrated UX flaws hamper the creation of IG stories and eventually lead to a hoard of added efforts, user frustration and an increase in the time spent on the curation of content.
1. Image Overlaps Captions, Tags & Other Elements
An accidental tap or trying to resize an image, can potentially make all other elements unretrievable unless the entire layout is redone, from the scratch.
Possible Solution: The image can be locked as the lowermost layer, irrespective of how many other elements are placed on the screen. This one simple move can completely resolve the issue of hidden layers.
2. Editable Elements Get Trapped Under Share Options
Low placement of tags, gifs and other elements result in trapped elements which are not only difficult to retrieve but also end in unintentional sharing.
Possible Solution: Your Story and Close Friends buttons can be moved to the top or can pop up – on pressing Send To. A confirmation dialogue box can also help in preventing accidental sharing.
Alternatively, sharing can be activated via double tap. This way, a single tap will only move elements.
3. Multiple Upload Option Incorrectly Rearranges Upload Order
The recently introduced multiple stories option is all easy and convenient as long as the upload comprises of imagery only. Add so much as one video to the mix and one can never know where it will show up.
Possible Solution: Not publishing stories on the profile until all the selections are uploaded can help in retaining the intended order of the upload.
4. Difficult to Pick Elements when Placed in Close Proximity
When positioned next to each other, the movement of different elements is nothing short of a battle. With high touch sensitivity, it often leads to displacement of the wrong layer.
Possible Solution: Introducing ‘tap to select followed by tap again to move’ instead of moving the current element in one tap. Reducing the touchable area or altering touch sensitivity also might help.
“When it comes to social media, fashionably late is not a thing. With time being of the essence, a minute saved is a battle half won.”
Illustrated and elaborated above are a few of the most common UX issues that social media managers face. Fixing or reducing these can significantly increase the efficiency of content curation. It can reduce the number of redos — as a result reducing time and energy that is wasted.
Throughout a year of story creation, my primary pain point has been the fact that when we start uploading, the gallery is arranged in a chronological order ruled by ‘Date Created’. Usually, I’ve had to scroll through months worth of content to pick the desired one even though I’ve recently transferred, edited or modified it. I can only begin to imagine how easy my job can be if the gallery showed up chronologically by ‘Date Modified’ instead!
This case study is purely based on the observations and challenges faced by me and my team and I’m sure there must be issues that I may have missed. Feel free to add or discuss those. And while I’ve tried to suggest solutions that are minor tweaks in the current process and do not need reinventing of the wheel — if you think you have cooler ideas, let’s talk about it!
