Portfolio Project

Instagram has grown into a multi-surface product where people come to create, connect, and be entertained. The challenge was keeping the experience intuitive at massive scale as behavior shifted toward short‑form video and messaging.

Friends and entertainment are the core jobs, yet Reels and Direct still required extra taps and context switching. We reframed navigation around those patterns to make them immediate while preserving the familiar “catch up first” rhythm for Feed and Stories.

We organized the nav around a clearer spatial model with consistent placement for high‑frequency actions. Moving Direct into the bottom nav had long been a leadership goal, but previous attempts stalled because the regressions were too severe—this architecture finally made it viable.

A swipeable navigation layer lets people move laterally between tabs, creating a more physical sense of the app while preserving camera access and the feed rhythm. The app now feels like adjacent spaces rather than separate destinations.

• Reels moves into the second tab for faster entertainment.
• Direct moves into the center tab so conversations are always one tap away.
• Explore shifts to the fourth tab to keep discovery close but not dominant.
• Create moves to the top-left of key surfaces for faster posting.
• Centered headers and simplified badging reduce visual noise.

Navigation changes have historically triggered strong negative sentiment, so we used an opt‑in rollout to protect the experience: in‑app prompts, an explainer page, and a lightweight welcome interstitial let people transition on their own terms. Tooltips and focused microcopy guided people through the new layout without forcing a hard cutover.

The strategy was unprecedented for Instagram and became a new baseline for how the company can ship large‑scale changes. It worked—this launch landed with minimal to no sentiment impact. Instagram’s CEO, Mosseri, also led the public communication to the community.

We changed layout, navigation, and design in parallel, which made it hard to isolate impact and required deeper instrumentation across the app.

Reels‑second and Direct‑in‑nav shifted traffic patterns everywhere, from Stories to Notes to onboarding, so we needed cross‑pillar alignment on mitigations and trade‑offs.

Direct had historically depended on Feed as a mandatory stop. Removing that path meant rebuilding badging logic and rethinking how we guide people to conversations without over‑relying on notifications.

The new architecture also became a baseline for cross‑org mitigation projects that addressed regressions and improved user quality of life.

The redesign simplified Instagram’s mental model and reduced friction to reach Reels and messaging. We saw stronger intent around entertainment, faster entry into conversations, and clearer navigation confidence in qualitative feedback.

Most importantly, the new IA establishes a foundation for future growth while keeping the app grounded in its social core.

Special thanks to Michael Friedman, Ryan Brownhill, Jacqueline Kouri, William Chong, the HomeX team, and so many others.