This is Instagram... In black and white.
No, it's not just some custom skin, the Menlo Park, California company redesigned the Instagram UI in a move to modernize the app.
This is new design features a departure from the blue, orange, gray aesthetic to a simpler black and white. This gives the UI a lot of breathing room and white space. Some of the buttons were changed as well. The camera button was changed from a square with a circle in it to more of a graphic interpretation of what a camera actually looks like. The notifications feed sees its heart button freed from the speech bubble that once housed it.
The navigation bar
This move comes at a time that Instagram is seemingly putting more focus on user content. This started with the rolling out of the new timeline last March. These moves seem to give a lot of importance to your content and the content you follow. All this focus is putting your content on a clean blank canvas and delivering it to people at the right time.
“We often test new experiences with a small percentage of the global community,”
The black and white update isn't available to everyone yet (as of this writing). It is in a sort of beta testing at the moment.
Negatives -
Positives +
I know what you're probably thinking. "Don't need to fix what ain't broke!!" And I get that, Instagram's current UI definitely is not "broke" and there definitely isn't anything much to fix. But after having the opportunity to use the app with the new UI for a few hours now, I can say that this new design really really showcases your content amidst the sea of white and a sprinkling of black text. Whatever you post really, really stands out, even if its a black and white photo. This sleek and modern design is really easy on the eyes and gives a sense that it is really just the backdrop to your content. This new Instagram is a hip upgrade to a classic app.
This design, though sleek and clean, is a pretty big departure from the classic Instagram UI aesthetic of blue and orange. The new black and white look leaves the app lost in a sea of plain apps void of any distinct branding. The neat looking black and white design tidies up even things you didn't need tidying. I end up forgetting what options i have because of the lack of color in the buttons. Reading the comments on your photo or video is like reading a sea of text because the usernames are black as well, making it hard to distinguish between the comments and the usernames. If you can get past giving up your comfort level, this design has a lot of promise, but a lot of work to do to get it there.
What do you think? While Instagram is still taking notes on this new proposed design, voice out whether you like it or not!
Screenshots from my iPhone of the new UI.
