However, one of the things about Instagram that puzzles me, is that it is a great, minimalist product, with a cheesy gimmick idea (filters) that seems to be a key trigger in its growth. Now admittedly Instagram did a really good job of that, but still.

In terms of flow, older photo sharing sites like Flickr often used the filename as the title (which ended up being DSC08989 or something like that, which then needed editing. To get a decent filename required re-editing, on a keyboard, and in a mobile app like Instagram that would have meant moving from one hand (to take the pic) to two (to create the title). I think to get meaningful titles (which are necessary to get shareable links) in mobile photo sharing apps, without using two hands, some kind of automated time&place event listing system based on people submitting options – e.g. ‘rolling stones concert, wembley, june 2011′ might be an evolution. But Instagram are nearly there.

Enjoyed the article and looking forward to the next one in the series.