great works

Looking really good!
Would love to see this in the app – it’s really not that beautiful so far

That looks great!

ooh.. shiny

Although this is an improvement upon the current UI, I feel that Instagram is going for more of the retro look and this really doesn’t fit well into it being candy colored and bright. It is nice looking though, and maybe could be used for an app of your own?

Looks nice.
How would the heart and comment icons look with 3 digits? What about places with longer names?

Very cool that you not whine about the shortcomings of Instagram’s UI, but make something happen with constructive feedback.

Unfortunately I am a bit disappointed that you left your design changes on the surface. Just changing some icons and textures is not what I would call a “better design”. I use Instagram every day and what I miss is a more telling users profile page and better overview of the feeds. I bet there is much more potential for improvement of this (BTW still excellent) app.

+1 for Tilman.

I was thinking the same thing. Instagram has its shortcomings, but it’s mostly in the functionality. Making something “pretty” doesn’t always make it more functional or easy to use. (although, I’d say that a few of your changes might)

Changing the title bar from worn blue to eye-poping red? That might make it look flash, but I’m not sure how it makes it a better experience for me. And it’s not really in line with their “vintage, worn-out” aesthetic.

I like the thought you’ve put into this but I don’t think the style you’re using for the UI is really fitting with the app or the feel of the photos it generates.

I really don’t understand this trend of designers publicly undermining products and services they supposedly “like” with this sort of stunt.

I also don’t see any reason that your design is any better than the existing Instagram implementation. Their’s is clean, simple, and allows the content to shine. Yours, while well executed, is over-stylized, adds no new useful functionality, and doesn’t even really iterate on the information layout. It’s a coat of paint.

You do beautiful work — better than mine — but this just seems like an excuse to make some dribbble fodder.

+1 jason

i’m sure the founders are grateful for your work, especially with the attention you are bringing to their product, however, it seems the story of the current instagram design (and brand) is lost in your new “polished” art.

a lot of what makes instagram successful is the *efficient* workflow/interaction, something of which I have advised on for instagram. when you’re proposing a design, it’s important to first understand the current design and respect some of its obvious strengths.

while your design leans on efficiency, it dropped a lot of the efficient interaction, and that’s one of the valuable keys to instagram’s growth.

lastly, the color palette misses on the current brand, and is very similar to Path as others have pointed out. your concern isn’t lost on the instagram team, they care about design just as much as the rest of us, if not more.

I like the design, I agree colours might be a little distracting but overall it’s much more appealing to me. I really like the idea of having comments hidden until tapped (speech bubble icon), when you are browsing someones feed the comments can easily quadruple the scrolling (not very efficient). And on a side note, the existing popular is seriously lacking you should be able to browse recent.

I do agree with Seth that the hidden comments/likes simplifies things and reduces scrolling. IMO, a true redesign involves more things like this: re-thinking which features are available where (for example, adding a “Recent” tab at the bottom). Improving those sorts of details are far more relevant than swapping out some colours.

This could have been done with more style, folks! I was hoping to see a redesign that improves usability and overall experience when using Instagram – not just by being more visually appealing?

If your intention was to bring attention to your site, it’s definitely working though. Brilliant!

And this is the kind of culture promoted by things like Dribbble.

I’m not even a fan of Instagram, but I can imagine their open response could go something like this:

Dear Tapmates,

Sorry it took us a moment to get back to you – we’re swamped over here! Thanks for spending your free time working on a design for us, but unfortunately we don’t take spec work or unsolicited submissions.

As for your designs, they seem more like decoration. All you really did was embellish what we’ve already got (which seems to be working pretty well!). Also, we’re not a fan of your overused web aesthetics. We don’t think they’ll date very well, and if you haven’t noticed, we’re growing fast and here to stay!

It’s so much easier to point out flaws than make something successful of your own, so we understand why you took this route. However, we’re gonna just keep on keepin’ on!

Best,
Instagram

Just because this one has some nice colors, doesn’t mean it’s better. Nice try, guys. Better luck next time!

It looks nice but some how misses the low-fi, simple retro kinda thing. I’m with John, I’d prefer them to improve the interaction design first.

^ Careful, Mike.

I really like the design a lot but I don’t like how you went about this post, especially with saying “An open letter to Instagram” as if to say you’re design sucks and we’re better. I don’t think its fair to their designers to be publicly called out for not doing a design quite how you would like to see it.

I agree with @Jon Rundle.

I understand the Instagram redesign was just for fun. But I don’t think it’s fair for Instagram’s designers to be publicly criticized saying their design “isn’t good enough” and “this is how it should look.” And it’s going to suck all the more for them if some influential or perhaps overrated designer tweets this (like Elliot Jay Stocks who happened to tweet this to thousands of his followers) and all the other “sheep” designers begin to agree.

Your redesign is awesome, that needs no discussion!
But if I would be the designer of Instagram I would love to hear what you don’t like about my design and why. And why you did it your way. Like this http://www.awayback.com/smashing-magazine-realigned/

I personally think that “doesn’t look great” it’s not an argument. I agree with @mment, you should explain with details what interactions of the actual interface does not work.

Excluding the fact, the redesign looks great!

Congrats!