Developers change the look and feel for their apps all the time, following the design philosophies of the operating systems for a native look and feel, while maintaining their signature touch. Instagram has activated a new interface to test on some users, so imagine the shock on my face when I woke up to this:
At first I thought I went colour blind, or that I somehow in my sleep rolled over my phone and activated the greyscale setting on the phone. Instagram stripped all colour from the app, leaving the pictures the only coloured element. Hashtags are now very dark blue and not easily indistinguishable from the black font.
Talk about minimalism — Instagram went to the extreme. Since this is a test UI, there could be modifications on the way and it might not even see the light of day.
In a way, the flat monochrome UI does give more emphasis to the photos. It feels like an elegant newspaper, and it eventually grows on you.
How do you feel about the new UI?
