Enhancing Creative and Collaborative Flows in Instagram

Problem

Instagram's creative tools and collaborative features have usability gaps that slow down users and create friction in their workflows.

Instagram is a platform built on quick creativity and social interaction. But even in such a refined product, small frictions in micro-interactions can slow users down or block key features entirely. In this case study, I identified and resolved two overlooked usability gaps:

• The inefficient shape selection process when editing photos in Stories.
• The inconsistent ability to create collaborative Saved Collections from different parts of the app.

Solution

These updates aim to streamline creative decisions and bring consistency to collaborative features—without disrupting Instagram's core design language.

1. Story Shape Selection

When a user adds a photo to their Story and wants to crop it into a shape (circle, star, heart, etc.), the current UI forces them to click through every shape in a fixed loop. This creates several pain points:

• No way to preview shapes before applying.
• No ability to go back if you accidentally skip one.
• The only option is to keep tapping until the shape cycles back around.

This lack of control turns a quick creative choice into a frustrating task, especially when users want to experiment with multiple layouts.

2. Saved Collections Collaboration

Instagram allows users to create shared Saved Collections—but only through the Explore page, and only during the act of saving a post. This leads to major usability problems:

• If a user tries to create a collection through Profile > Saved > "+", there is no way to add contributors.
• There is no way to make an existing collection collaborative from that view either.
• Users may not even discover the collaboration feature at all unless they happen to use the Explore-based flow.

This creates a disjointed experience, where feature access depends on entry point, not user intent.

To address these usability gaps, I designed two key improvements that enhance both creative and collaborative workflows in Instagram.