Have you ever experienced downloading a new app, eagerly opening it, only to find yourself completely baffled by the various buttons and icons on the interface, unsure of how to navigate it? This is a very common problem.
Snapchat’s original design was often criticized for being unintuitive, as seen in the images provided by Beebom. This design adopted a camera-centric interface, directly opening to the camera while other functions and navigation were not immediately obvious to new users.
How can we design an app interface that new users can easily navigate, allowing them to understand how to use it without effort? This is where a crucial concept in psychology comes into play — affordance.
Snapchat later implemented design optimizations aimed at improving accessibility and affordance, as demonstrated in the image from TechCrunch. This redesign aimed to clearly differentiate social interactions from media content, employ more understandable icons, and enhance the overall layout, making core features more accessible.
