Foto MVP Design Philosophy

Foto + Instagram Designs

Nov 12, 2022

Let’s talk about the early designs for Foto.

Sometimes when people see the current design for Foto, they say, “This looks a lot like Instagram. Why?”

The logic behind this is that the vision we have for Foto will lead us to a much different design over time, but that requires many new features to be built.

This first version of Foto has some similarities to Instagram because we feel that it reduces friction in using Foto for the first time. We also believe that Instagram does have some solid design in certain areas.

The problems with IG aren’t necessarily where the buttons are.

The problem with IG is more about its incentive structure, monetization, and lack of interest in solving the numerous problems related to sharing images online.

At Foto, we have a lot of features and functionality that we are discussing internally. When we can add those, then Foto will look more like Foto and less like the peak of Instagram.

We don’t want to show some of these feature ideas yet, because we don’t want other people to take our ideas and build them before we can. We are also working out the details of some of these ideas, so they aren’t ready to show either.

Design-wise there are only so many ways you can put images inside the unique shape of a phone screen. It’s a small sandbox, and many apps locate the same buttons in similar locations. At this point, it’s almost like a keyboard. Our fingers have muscle memory, and we don’t want to disrupt that initially. There is an advantage to mixing the familiar with the new.

We could do a different design to emphasize that Foto is a new platform, but we don’t want to force a different look just for the sake of it. There needs to be a functional reason for every design choice. As Foto grows, the design will push the boundaries in relation to new features.

Foto Podcast

Have you listened to the Foto Podcast yet?

We’ve released two episodes. You can listen here on our Substack, but you can also listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Support Foto Development

If you like what we are building at Foto, there are two ways you can help us out financially. We have hoodies and shirts available at fotoapp.co/shop

You can also get on our Private Beta List by buying a shirt or donating $5 at fotoapp.co/beta