Okay Geek Farm
Instagram could look like this - New design mockups
Brandon Davenport
Those snazzy fellas over at Tapmates have written an open letter to Instagram, begging for a prettier UI and lovely icons. Tapmates is known for their amazing design work, so naturally we assume they know what they’re talking about but there are other designers arguing the proposal. Stay tuned for the arguments and lots of screenshots after the break!
Images of the Tapmates Instagram mockups
Very good points made by fellow designers
“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?” — Daniel Waldron
“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 [Tapmates] do beautiful work — better than mine — but this just seems like an excuse to make some dribbble fodder.” — Jason Carlin
“Cute, pretty clean, overall really nice. However, I don’t think it fits in with Instagram’s retro theme. I also think that a design like this for a photos app is detracting, even slightly, from the app’s actual, original purpose—photos!” — Erica Schoonmaker
“Although I really like it (it’s very pretty), I think the real challenge is in solving all the usability problems the app has: using the tab bar for actions, no grid view on the feed, the commenting system and displaying, notification system… Anyway, except for using Bello, I love the visual design you did! :)” — Alberto Calvo
Learn more about these mockups at Tapmates — Read more
