Product Design Case Study
Instagram Reviews
PRODUCT DESIGN / PRODUCT STRATEGY
Instagram Reviews: Increasing E-Commerce Security & Small Brand Visibility
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My case study was published by The Startup, Medium's largest active publication, on December 22nd, 2020.
Overview
SCOPE
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How many people worked on it?
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Just me, but my work was largely influenced by the feedback from my TAs & classmates, so a big thank you to them!
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What was your role?
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Product Designer
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What was the timeline?
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Seven Weeks
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What was the Class?
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Introduction to Digital Product Design
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People Problem
PURCHASING BEHAVIORS
When I am online shopping [on Instagram], I want to make safe, informed purchases. However, I can’t do this well because:
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The purchase process is complicated and/or long.
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The purchasing process does not feel secure.
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The Instagram Shops feature is hard to find.
Bringing Visibility to Shops
SCOPE
On Instagram, users are exposed to opportunities to purchase on the platform from:
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Ads, both on stories and on their feed
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Products tagged in posts
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Within the Shops page.
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I chose to focus on the Shops feature because it allowed for the most streamlined method of purchasing on the app, as users did not have to purchase through a webpage pop-up window.
My original hypothesis was:
If IG Shops was easier to find, trust, and use, more users would follow through with purchases on the platform.
Understanding Why IG Shop Isn’t Used
USER RESEARCH INSIGHTS
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The Shop feature is hard to find, and users are initially overwhelmed by its content.
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Most users do not go on IG primarily to shop, but make impromptu purchases based on inspiration to shop from ads and influencers off the platform.
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Users trust buying from an Influencer they follow and relate to, as opposed to buying from an Ad.
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Users do not make their impromptu purchases on the app because they like to do research into the products and brands before they purchase, to ensure they are making a safe and informed decision.
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Users feel that the checkout process is unsafe.
The key ingredient that is missing is a sense of safety and trust in the purchasing process, the product, and the brand.
Brainstorming
OPPORTUNITY AREAS & SOLUTION SPACES
Part 1 — Identifying Opportunity Areas: How might we make a better purchasing experience on the platform?
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Improving the location and layout of the IG shops feature
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Improving the effectiveness of Ads on Instagram
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Leveraging social commerce and the power of the influencer
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Lowering the barriers to purchasing on the platform
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Part 2 —Solution Spaces: How might we mobilize users to follow through with a purchase?
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Make purchasing more trustworthy.
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Make shopping more irresistible.
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Make researching and engaging with shops on Instagram more convenient.
We voted on a solution that leveraged social commerce to build trust in new products and brands; implementing customer reviews on the platform.
Initial Approach
LOW FIDELITY
Despite being more likely to buy from an influencer than from an Ad, I found that users trusted word of mouth of regular people more than influencers.
This steered me in the direction of having an open forum, where discussion is encouraged, and any users can leave a review or respond to a review of another person if they agree or disagree.
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There is truth in numbers!
Exploring Entry Points for Reviews
I pursued entry from a tagged post, because users are most likely to engage with shopping by clicking on a product tagged by an influencer.
Review Content Requirements
INFORMATION HEIRARCHY
After looking at several precedents for reviews, I began iterating on what kind of information to include in reviews to paint the clearest picture of a product.
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5-star review
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For the store & individual products
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Stats on how many people left subsequent ratings
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Quick link to purchasing the item
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Quality & Customer Service
Filtering For Relevant Reviews
Final Interaction for Review Finding & Creation
Final Mockups of Reviews Screens
Conclusion
THE FUTURE OF INSTAGRAM PURCHASHING
My goal with reviews is to increase trust in smaller brands to make people actually purchase on the platform by encouraging more engagement between users and brands.
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Social commerce is incredibly powerful, as nothing is more trustworthy than word of mouth reviews, and online reviews are an elegant solution that brings personal experience onto the platform to drive more informed purchasing decisions.
Near completion of this case study, in mid November 2020, Instagram came out with an update that replaced the like button in the bottom navigation bar with the shop feature button. This proved that the IG team at Facebook shared my goals of bringing more visibility to this feature.
