Personal Projects
CREATIVE DIRECTION
PRODUCT DESIGN
WEB DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
A collection of personal projects I’ve developed, ranging from merch designs to engaging social content.
Self-Taught Creative
Self-Taught Creative began as a series of Instagram posts I titled Self-Taught Sundays, where I shared design tips to help others learn design. As my audience grew and became more engaged, I wanted to create something that would foster a sense of community, so I created a line of merch—serving as both a celebration of creativity and a way to bring creatives together.
INSTAGRAM CASE STUDY
I know what you’re thinking, another aspirational app redesign. Yes, redesigns of popular apps are popular design exercises, but this isn’t a redesign, this is the *re-imagination* of a time-saving, and possibly even life-saving feature that Instagram is in desperate need of. I spend a lot of time on Instagram (more than I’m willing to admit), and as I’ve spent more and more time on the app, I noticed a problem.
The Problem: You liked a creator’s post a few weeks ago, but when you go to your Posts You’ve Liked page you can’t find it. You remember the creator whose post you liked, but for some reason, you just can’t find the post on their grid. If only there was a way to see liked posts by creator on Instagram.
The Solution: The addition of a Posts You’ve Liked tab on user profiles. Now, when you visit a user’s grid, you can quickly reference an area that saves all of your likes from that specific user. No more endlessly scrolling through the Posts You’ve Liked page to try to find the cute pair of shoes your favorite influencer posted 7 weeks ago.You’re probably thinking, Temi, if an Instagram user wants to quickly reference a post, wouldn’t they just save it? Great thought, but saving posts isn’t as intuitive as you might think—this is something I learned when I created a survey, asking 25 of my friends and followers to give me more insight into how they use likes vs. saves and if they’re as frustrated with not having an organized way to reference liked posts as I am.
Tools Used: Adobe Illustrator & Figma
“I only save posts I know I want to go back to, but what do I do when I don’t realize I want to go back to something until I realize I want to go back to it?”
Research: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok have areas to view your likes, but no dedicated feature for viewing likes by user.
Qualitative Research:
I asked 13 women and 12 men who actively use Instagram (at least 3 times a week) about their like and save habits on the app and how they interact with content on other social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok. The results were gratifying as I realized that many users shared my frustrations:
- All 25 respondents are active Instagram users who interact with posted content at least once a day.
- The average number of liked posts/day for all 25 respondents was 10
- The average number of saved posts/day for all 25 respondents was 3
When asked how often they reference liked vs. saved posts, the responses were close:
- 20 respondents regularly reference liked posts
- All 25 respondents regularly reference saved posts
- 17 respondents made comments about how there are too many clicks to get to Posts You’ve Liked, and saves are easier to reference
- All 25 respondents agreed that a dedicated tab to view content you’ve liked per user would be beneficial, cutting down the amount of time spent trying to find liked posts
“It would be cool to have a liked post tab. It’s like I could create my own feed for the people I follow and filter out what I don’t want to see.”
Whether or not a liked posts profile grid feature would be used often was a concern of mine, so I asked respondents how often they interact with profile grid tabs like Tagged Posts, Camera Filter, Reels, IGTV, and Shop to filter out a user’s content.
- 21 respondents regularly used profile grid tabs
- 4 respondents preferred to see all content on the grid
- The tagged posts tab was most frequented by respondents
- The Camera Filter tab was least frequented by respondents
- 16 respondents thought that when a user has a lot of tabs it can look overwhelming
The Conclusion
Instagram users are frustrated that there is no way to easily reference liked posts. Saving a post isn’t as intuitive as liking, and users want a way to easily reference posts they’ve liked. The addition of a Posts You’ve Liked profile grid tab can help to keep liked content organized and encourage users to engage with content more, giving users the sense of creating their own grids for the creators they follow by filtering out content they don’t interact with.
