I’ve decided to compare Instagram, Facebook, and Wikipedia. I’m going to be focusing on their mobile User Experience (UX), particularly as it applies to functionality and how it creates social interaction. UX has a strong connection to overall user satisfaction, more then quality of content on the site (Nakamura et al., 2022).
Instagram uses a streamlined interface. You have access to 5 basic options: Your home feed, your explore feed, the posting interface, a selection of reels, and your profile. On the top of the screen in the corner is the option for your notifications and your messages, both hidden in small, integrated icons. Instagram is a great UX design, with sleek icons, that don’t clutter your view, and actions are placed in other pages, so you’re not given access to options before you need them. There’s also profile bubbles at the top of the page showing users icons, letting you know they’ve posted to their story.
Facebook provides a greater selection of options. You have your feed, friend requests, messenger, videos, notifications and the marketplace. In the top corner you have a search option and an expandable list of more options. There’s also the option to make a post, and another button to add an image post, and go to your profile. Worst of all, none of it comes with you when you scroll. If you want to access any of it later, you need to either refresh the page or go back to the top of the page, both of which lose your spot. This is clunky and bad UX. Having the basics scroll with the user lets them quickly navigate to the pages they want. Finally, Facebook also has user profiles at the top of the page for their stories. But unlike Instagram, Facebook displays a preview of the story, meaning their story UI takes up much more space, displays less stories, and once again it does not scroll. Facebook provides strong access to social tools, but this is undermined by the clutter. It can be easy for users to feel overwhelmed and lost. Instagram doesn’t provide the variety of services that Facebook does, but it’s focus is a strength, ensuring only social interactions are provided by it’s UX, unlike Facebook which tries to be a marketplace, a social network, a chat service and more all at once, with little distinction.
I wanted to compare these two giants of social media with the mobile UX of Wikipedia. It’s not a traditional social platform, but it does contain forums. It’s homepage gives you a search bar, the option to go to articles in different languages, and a clickable list of Wikimedia resources at the bottom of the page. This is a very slim and simple design. It doesn’t try and feed you any unnecessary information. Mobile phones have less screen space then a computer, so giving the user the power to navigate ensures they’re not overwhelmed. It’s a great contrast for Facebook and Instagram, because it succeeds in both of the others strengths. It’s simple, like Instagram, yet has a wide variety of services like Facebook. The difference is that Wikipedia doesn’t try and direct your attention with a complex interface. It simply provides the options. Wikipedia does fail at making it easy to find it’s other areas. More of it’s services could be moved onto the sidebar, allowing users to directly move to them, rather then having to scroll through the homepage. It shows a lack of in-depth mobile optimisation, despite having achieved the basics well.
In all cases, the mobile content lacked major issues such as dead links or unusable interfaces. Overall, I found Instagram to have the strongest UX that focuses on connecting users directly to the content they’re most interested in, with minimal distraction or clutter (Bufe, 2023; Interaction Design Foundation, n.d.).
References
Bufe, A. (2023). Mobile UX Design: The Ultimate Guide 2024. UXcam. https://uxcam.com/blog/mobile-ux/
Interaction Design Foundation. (n.d.). Mobile user experience (UX) design. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/mobile-ux-design
Nakamura, W. T., Oliveira, E. C. D., Oliveira, E. H. T. d., Redmiles, D., & Conte, T. (2022). What factors affect the UX in mobile apps? A systematic mapping study on the analysis of app store reviews. Journal of Systems and Software, 193. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2022.111462