“Instagram has become synonymous with visual design and visual experiences. Instagram’s impact has become material, with devices, spaces, cultural institutions and homes all being re-designed and reimagined for the peak Instagram aesthetic experience.” – PP. 150, Leaver, T, Highfield, T, & Abidin, C 2020, Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures, Polity Press, Newark. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. 

This week’s reading had me inspired. How many times do we use the term ‘aesthetic’ to refer to things that are pleasing to the eye? It’s become so important within our society, that everything MUST be aesthetically pleasing to look at – including ourselves. I realised that Instagram’s impact IS material, and IS riddling popular culture fast. Everything is being re-designed for the peak Instagram aesthetic experience. So I set out this week to add a constraint and find material designs that have both ‘Instagram aesthetic’ and qualities of either a good or bad design that relates to our brief “Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good design fits our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out it’s inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.” from Donald Norman’s 1988 work, The Design of Everyday Things.

This weeks video subject is a puppy toy that I bought from Kmart, for the puppy I’m adopting this week! I think this is a brilliant design, personally, offering the newborn dog both a plush toy for cuddling and a tennis ball for teething. A multifaceted design. What’s particularly interesting here, is that it relates to the above quote from Leaver, in the way that this is a clear example of how everything is being designed for that ‘Instagram aesthetic’ – with avocados being an extremely popular and repetitive image to be seen on Instagram and throughout popular culture on other items.

HOW DID YOU AUTHOR THE VIDEO YOU RECORDED FOR INSTAGRAM?

For this video, I filmed straight to the Instagram app on my iPhone 8Plus, which features a double camera on the back. It was a fast and quick film, so I didn’t bother filming on the iPhone’s camera app – which has far more features than the Instagram app, that offers limited ability to edit the videos, compared to photos.

HOW DID YOU PUBLISH THE VIDEO YOU RECORDED FOR INSTAGRAM?

I published it to Instagram with the caption:

I’m getting a puppy! We welcome the new member of our family to our home with some rather clever designed dog toys. Would you take a look at this design?! Incredible! See what I mean about good design being multifaceted? A plush toy AND a tennis ball. This is the future. Thanks Kmart.
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“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good design fits our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out it’s inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.”
#DonaldNorman #thedesignofeverydaythings #1988

This was to connect the content with this idea raised in class of using the platform as a way of connecting with people by showing the everyday – especially with the accessibility that smartphones have. The caption also connects with the brief, in the way it shows and explains (what I would consider) a good design, and also works in with the above quote from Leaver, about things being re-designed for ‘Instagram aesthetic’. I also made use of the GeoTag ‘Kmart Australia’, so viewers are able to know where the item came from.

I then shared the link to my personal twitter account:

HOW DID YOU DISTRIBUTE THE VIDEO YOU PUBLISHED ON INSTAGRAM TO OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICES?

After distributing the video on Instagram itself, I then shared the link to the post on my personal Twitter account (@JessCZR). This was so the content could be distributed to as many people as possible, with the video gaining viewers that it might not have had before it was shared to the platform. The use of the GeoTag ‘Kmart Australia’ will also assist in the distribution of the video, as it will work to collate my content with other content on the platform that has used the same GeoTag. The same thing happening with my Hashtags in use, #DonaldNorman #thedesignofeverydaythings #1988.

CITATIONS

• Leaver, T, Highfield, T, & Abidin, C 2020, Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures, Polity Press, Newark. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central.