Sure, Instagram has always been more of a mobile-first experience, but there may have been times when you found yourself jumping onto the website for a gander at images and other content.
With few changes made to the look of the desktop version over the years, some may have been wondering if the design team had simply forgotten it actually exists. Fortunately, someone somewhere brought the stale-looking site to the team’s attention, prompting it to finally take action.
The result, which is being rolled out to desktop users this week, is a much simpler, fresher, and flatter look that’s definitely more than a few notches above the previous design.
In a tweet announcing the refreshed look, Instagram said it’d been working on making profiles, feeds, and hashtag pages for Web cleaner and faster.
Gone is the image header and Instagram bar along the top, and each row of content now contains three pictures (or videos) instead of five. Hit ‘load more’ at the bottom of the page and you’ll be in infinite-scrolling mode, allowing you to easily glide through a user’s images and videos.
The new, less cluttered design, which gets a big thumbs-up from us, is being rolled out to Web users this week, so if you don’t see it yet, you will soon.
While most users hit Instagram via their mobile device, it’s good to see that its designers have finally gotten around to showing some love to the Web version. The previous design started to look seriously out of date, while the new look is so much easier on the eyes.
Instagram, which launched back in 2010, now has a user base of more than 300 million. Since being snapped up by Facebook for around $1 billion three years ago, the startup has been busy creating a number of additional mobile apps, among them Hyperlapse and Layout.
