The Forgotten Visual Element in iOS 14
February 2021, Janice ChengFrom the Memories feature to Live Photos, there’s an assumption in iOS 14 that users take pictures to create deliberate visual memories. Little attention is paid to screenshots and text-based photos, but research suggests that these contribute to about 15% of people’s total photo-taking habits.
So how do people really use these 15% of visual artifacts? More importantly, why do screenshots often end up forgotten and eventually deleted?
In this case study, I propose an interface update on the iOS screenshot feature that could help users reduce the accumulation of junk screenshot files, making them more useful at the same time.
Project Timeline
This was a solo project prepared for the General Assembly UXDI curriculum over a 14-day period in February 2021. As an Android user, my goal was to get familiar with the iOS platform by designing an update on a popular stock application that feels familiar to longterm iOS users.
Discovering the Problem
User Research
As usual, my design process kicks off with user interviews to understand the pain points and project direction. I recruited 6 iOS users and conducted interviews and contextual inquiry during a 3-day period. Due to pandemic limitations, I met with users over Zoom and relied on screenshots and screen-shares of the iOS 14 photo app to navigate the experience.
I used the affinity mapping technique on Whimsical to synthesize common trends and to begin forming a project hypothesis. Next, I designed an online survey using Google Forms to catch some quantitative information about demographics, photo usage, and storage.
My users were aged 25-35 and had been exclusively using the iOS platform for 8 or more years.
The User Journey
Meet my persona, Emily. Emily is a proto persona based on user interviews. She describes her typical journey using the iOS screenshot tool in the following diagram.
As a mobile native who likes to browse articles on her phone, Emily has a social need to share screenshots when she comes across an interesting visual idea. While the act of taking a screenshot is not difficult, her frustration comes with photo management later down the road, when she ends up with a buildup of screenshot images that eventually end up in the bin.
Defining the Problem
Problem Statement
Emily’s frustrations can be mapped onto four pain points and possible solutions. In order to design an interface that accounts for both the user’s equal need to use and discard text-based images, we have to recognize the sometimes transitory nature of screenshots.
How might we design a transitory interface that addresses users’ need to both use and discard screenshots with equal measure?
Task Analysis
I needed to understand the information architecture and the greater Photo app ecosystem. For this, I analyzed over 23 screens related to the screenshot feature, and found over 40 decision points coming in or out of the main screenshot landing page.
There were also inconsistencies in button placement, icon use, and flow logic on different screens. For example, the example above is a screen that only appears when users try to take a photo within the iMessage app. The icons used on this screen don’t appear anywhere else within the screenshot landing page or the greater photo app ecosystem.
On this screen, progressive and regressive actions follow the typical iOS button placement logic, but this logic is somehow reversed within the current screenshot landing page.
The Iterative Process
Share, Crop, Delete
When 14 users were asked in an online survey to rank button choices on the screenshot landing page from most to least commonly used in the last 2 weeks, their responses became random after the top three choices. This arbitrary response suggests that users felt confused or ambivalent after the top three choices.
Fig 1. Results from online survey, where users were asked to rank button choices on the screenshot landing page from most to least commonly used in the last 14 days
What I found was that users significantly preferred Sharing, Cropping, and Deleting actions, after which most other button choices lost their meaningfulness.
User Flow
Armed with a better understanding of the current app information architecture, UI constraints, and users’ preferences for actions and paths, I felt confident to focus my user flow on the 4 action trends : sharing actions, editing actions, deleting actions, and saving actions.
Process Flow
From here, I drafted mid-level wireframes and the process flow, incorporating the user flow and UI considerations.
Proposed Solutions
Here’s a high-level summary of my final redesign updates.
1. Prioritize Sharing
I prioritized a sharing-first happy path so users can share immediately in the preview screen without needing to click into the landing page.
2. Delete After Use
Users can delete photos meant for one-time use immediately with a toggle feature, eliminating the need for routine junk management down the road.
3. Landing Page Interface
Editing tools are now tucked inside a Markup button, resulting in a cleaner experience without sacrificing functionality.
Experience it Live
Finally, I built a high-fidelity clickable prototype. You can test out Emily’s new happy path directly on Figma.
