Crafting Instagram's End of Year Playback
Product Designer • 2021 - 2022
I helped design an experience that reached 670M+ users worldwide to help them reflect and reminisce on their favorite memories of 2021.
Background
Instagram's mission at the time was to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Their vision was to imagine a place where young people and creators define themselves and the future.
Meta Creative X and Instagram wanted to help people:
• Express themselves freely
• Explore their interests
• Feel closer to the people they care about
• Transform their passion into a living
• Express themselves freely
• Explore their interests
• Feel closer to the people they care about
• Transform their passion into a living
Our approach was:
People first: We serve people’s evolving needs.
Simplicity: We focus on what adds the most value.
Craft: We take care in what we create.
People first: We serve people’s evolving needs.
Simplicity: We focus on what adds the most value.
Craft: We take care in what we create.
Goal
On Instagram, CAU declined 9.55% over the last 2 years to 53.4%. This decline is particularly stark in EN FCI markets with CAU drops >20 points. Along with CAU, there were declines in Instagram’s fun ratings. These metrics appeared to move together with both showing steep declines y/y particularly in the US.
Our goal was that despite the year had been different with COVID (less IRL experiences to share), we wanted to still celebrate what people have experienced, discovered, and accomplished and look back on memories made to see how far they’d come on the Instagram app and platform.
Our goal was that despite the year had been different with COVID (less IRL experiences to share), we wanted to still celebrate what people have experienced, discovered, and accomplished and look back on memories made to see how far they’d come on the Instagram app and platform.
Objectives
We wanted to show that Instagram cared about their users by:
• Highlighting the value of our apps by providing a personalized experience
• Providing a global, sharable EOY platform that drives conversation with friends influencing “virality”
• Maximizing reach without compromising a delightful, fun experience
• Highlighting the value of our apps by providing a personalized experience
• Providing a global, sharable EOY platform that drives conversation with friends influencing “virality”
• Maximizing reach without compromising a delightful, fun experience
We wanted to create an experience that made people go "aha"—whether it's something we see or experience—it has to feel exciting and like a revelation. These are the things that inspire us to share with others to keep that inspiration engine going.
Key Metrics
• Sentiment Metric: CAU
• Brand L1’s, meaningful engagement and reach
• Core young audience (16-24)
• Brand L1’s, meaningful engagement and reach
• Core young audience (16-24)
Our principles and guardrails included:
• Does it give the user enough agency over what is being generated or shared?
• CAU: Does it make it possible to form common ground with potential viewers enabling connection?
• Fun: Is it funny & entertaining? Does it surface people’s memories?
It shouldn't be too personal, shouldn’t feel closed off or for ‘close friends only,’ shouldn’t be something viewers cannot react to, shouldn’t center on medium or high risk topics, and shouldn’t seem too perfect or polished.
Finally, individuals should have the opportunity to opt-out of the EOY experience if they would like to do so and/or have certain dates excluded from the experience.
• Does it give the user enough agency over what is being generated or shared?
• CAU: Does it make it possible to form common ground with potential viewers enabling connection?
• Fun: Is it funny & entertaining? Does it surface people’s memories?
It shouldn't be too personal, shouldn’t feel closed off or for ‘close friends only,’ shouldn’t be something viewers cannot react to, shouldn’t center on medium or high risk topics, and shouldn’t seem too perfect or polished.
Finally, individuals should have the opportunity to opt-out of the EOY experience if they would like to do so and/or have certain dates excluded from the experience.
Design Vision
We wanted a visually cohesive design language and aesthetic that bridged the Spark design system and the current Instagram app experience.
Final Designs
.png)
.png)
Impact
Our team launched the first-ever end-of-year personalized in-app experience on Instagram. IG EOY Playback reached 670M and increased CAU 0.3 (+/- 0.7pt)
By leveraging the hidden treasure Stories Archive, people could customize and select up to ten stories to share with their communities in a fun, playful way using the Stories background and custom 2021 sticker.
In addition to developing the product experience, we collaborated with creators to share their 2021 Playback experiences. All told, Playback helped people remember their 2021 moments, from the little ones they may have forgotten, to the big ones they’ll never forget. While Playback had stat sig lift in Stories creation and high QP CTR, awareness and recall, it had low share rate 2.3% (no relevant benchmark). The largest drop off between views and edits could be due to suboptimal experience as IG had no permanent entry point and no viewing experience CTA making it difficult to find.
Takeaways and opportunities for future campaigns:
• Pursue concepts that support product priorities (e.g., #ReelsRecap)
• Add to IG roadmap to secure IG Eng and Design resources
• Build in-product viral levers to increase share rate
• Consider a creator-specific EOY 'gift'/campaign (reminder of the value they get from IG)
READ NEXT: ADVANCING MONGODB'S CLOUD PLATFORM
In addition to developing the product experience, we collaborated with creators to share their 2021 Playback experiences. All told, Playback helped people remember their 2021 moments, from the little ones they may have forgotten, to the big ones they’ll never forget. While Playback had stat sig lift in Stories creation and high QP CTR, awareness and recall, it had low share rate 2.3% (no relevant benchmark). The largest drop off between views and edits could be due to suboptimal experience as IG had no permanent entry point and no viewing experience CTA making it difficult to find.
Takeaways and opportunities for future campaigns:
• Pursue concepts that support product priorities (e.g., #ReelsRecap)
• Add to IG roadmap to secure IG Eng and Design resources
• Build in-product viral levers to increase share rate
• Consider a creator-specific EOY 'gift'/campaign (reminder of the value they get from IG)