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Instagram Peace Mode

Designing a new feature for Instagram that would help users feel less stressed while scrolling on the app

This project aims to promote a safer and more peaceful online environment for users. The goal is to reduce the amount of offensive content viewed by users in order to boost both their mental health and user engagement. In doing so, we hope to encourage positive behavior, create a supportive community, and promote a safer and more peaceful online space overall.

Project Overview

Our solution is to design and implement our "peace mode" feature which enhances user engagement and reduces the negative impact of social media on mental health by allowing users to filter out negative and inappropriate content and promote positive content instead. The goal is to create a safe and engaging environment for Instagram users to connect and share without the pressure from others, and ultimately improving their well-being and promoting positive social media habits. 

DIscover

We then began our research to gain better understanding into our users’ pain points. These methods included:

  • Literature review

  • User interviews

  • User surveys

Literature Review

Relationship between social media usage and mental health is a commonly discussed and well-researched topic. We looked at a variety of literature from articles by reputed news to peer-reviewed scholarly research. A few key problems revealed by researchers were:

  • perpetuation of beauty standards and consciousness of appearances

  • fear of missing out (FOMO) on everything

  • endless scrolling resulting in frequent and extreme upward social comparison

  • overuse that affected their real lives.

15 user interviews 

  • they were often comparing themselves to their peers resulting in feelings of inadequacy 

  • Many were reminiscent for the early days of social media when it was less populated and less pressure to post the perfect photo

  • they were frustrated by the algorithm, which was not taking into account user feedback. 

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42 survey responses

content that most negatively affected the user includes but is not limited to:

  • hateful, discriminatory, and violent content 

  • news stories and graphic images

  • posts that promote unrealistic beauty standards

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Users also told us about the features they would find most helpful:

  • “take a break” notifications

  • having the algorithm suggest more positive content

  • giving them the ability to limit their own screen time

  • access to mental health resources and support groups.

From the data points we extrapolated, we were able to paint a picture of our potential user​

IDEATE

We compared our ideas to our competitors. We focused on TikTok, BeReal, Twitter, and Twitch. Our interviewees loved how TikTok’s For You Page was tailored to them but it’s also known for its crude humor. Twitch allows streamers to censor keywords of their choosing but a great deal of harassment and hate speech still fails to get filtered out. Finally, BeReal, coined the “anti-Instagram”, promises authenticity but users seem to be publicly shamed for not posting on time.
Common themes inspired by both our research and the secondary research were giving the user total control over their feed, time management, and removing number of likes, comments, followers, or any other numerical value that might be attributed to self-worth. 

We had drawn inspiration from Instagram’s biggest competitors and we were ready to improve on the current design

Wireframing & Prototyping

We synthesized our best ideas into one cohesive united flow allowing us to begin sketching the blueprint that would guide the creation of our mid fidelity wireframes.

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We then prototyped our wireframes to prepare for usability testing.

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After hearing feedback from our users, we learned that we should

  • have more obvious prompting to click “learn more” before setting up

  • streamline our wording to mitigate confusion in the setup process

  • iterate the Peace Mode screens using the existing Instagram UI style guide in order to maintain unity with the current app.

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Now that all of these improvements have been made, we invite you to walk through our new feature and flow with us in our mobile prototype

conclusion & Next Steps

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