Portfolio Project

Feed is Instagram’s most iconic surface, but research consistently showed it felt busy, cluttered, and harder to focus—especially for younger audiences. At the same time, Feed was evolving toward more video and recommendations.

This work bundled tactical simplifications from across multiple teams into a single program—improvements that could ship within 6–12 months while laying groundwork for Feed’s future. The goal: simplify without breaking the familiar behavior people rely on.

• Reduce noise and visual framing.
• Support a more video-forward Feed composition.
• Align adjacent initiatives so changes landed together.

Research showed Feed often felt busy and distracting. This opportunity focused on reducing framing and noise so people can quickly understand what they’re seeing and move through Feed without interruptions.

• Post header as a single, consistent source of context.
• Glanceable social signals to highlight what matters most.
• Cleaner presentation for video and carousel content.

Make it easy to dive deeper when people show interest, without forcing a hard transition or a dead end.

• Richer details and attribution without adding clutter.
• More immersive carousels with clearer progression.
• Scroll behaviors that feel fluid and uninterrupted.

Make recommendations feel fresher and more relevant by changing how content is introduced and contextualized.

• Diverse recommendation formats that reduce repetition.
• Content-forward recs that feel more intentional.
• New contexts tied to the creators and topics people love.

Make it easier to follow and participate in comments by clarifying structure and creating room for richer expression.

• Simplified comment layouts that are easier to scan.
• Improved navigation for replies and threads.
• A more expressive composer that can scale over time.

The refresh made Home feel lighter and more intentional, reducing friction and clarifying what matters in the feed. Several initiatives shipped under the Craft umbrella, while others were validated in testing and informed future roadmaps.

Impact was clear: stronger engagement with core content surfaces, longer time spent in Feed, and higher rates of consumption, graph growth, and participation. Just as importantly, it raised confidence that Home can scale into a more video‑forward, recommendation‑heavy future without losing its social core.

Special thanks to Ryan Brownhill, Jennifer Shott, Alessandra Villaamil, Sarju Mehta, and so many others.