Today I was browsing r/web_design and came across this DesignTAXI link that boasted Instinct agency had made a product catalogue website inside of Instagram. I LOVE digital art and using platforms in unique ways so I was all over this.
Ikea Russia needed to get their 2014 product catalogue out to the world. Instagram users who visit the specially made @ikea_ps_2014 account will be shown a collage of images made into a catalogue. The design doesn’t work as well on desktop so be sure to look at it in the Instagram app. The idea does still work in a desktop browser though. The tagging system, which is used for navigation does suffer in browser mode from my investigation though.
There’s six catagories that users can access and view items from. Each image tags each category, which makes it operate the same way as having a navigation bar. The catagories are benches, tables, storage, light, textiles and ideas.
The initial category image has all items listed. I think this translates well from having a dropdown menu. Doing this gives users the opportunity to see every product in the catagory as a set rather than individual isolated product photos.
Each product photo has a description of the item and the inspiration for it. I’m assuming these product descriptions would be generic accross all Ikea national branches but they are very well written and bring the art and design side of the product through to the customer.
Ikea Russia is encouraging users to tag their products in the photo. This is great for two ways:
- It creates a family feeling for the product and that by tagging the product in a photo the user is welcoming the product into the family. A better relationship between user and furniture is created instead of just buying a new table because you need it and having a more utilitarian look at the users purchase.
- Ikea Russia gets a growing audience. As more users tag people users are showing off their new purchase, which a lot of people do anyway but now with the tagging feature for prodcuts the user’s followers can now follow the tags and are drawn into the rest of the catalogue.
This video was made by Instinct and describes the campaign and thoughts behind it:
IKEA PS: Instagram Website from Instinct on Vimeo.
I love seeing the web used in different ways and thinking outside the box towards the platforms we use every day. It’s great that Ikea Russia and Instinct were able to take a gamble with this campaign. It’s definitely looking like a success for them from both customers and the design community.
1 comment
Nice find! It excites me because it’s a perfect case of a brand identifying where its market is, what its market’s story is, and then being able to be part of that story. It’s similar to Black Milk’s leverage of that platform. Ikea have gone one better by turning that channel into a narrative (ofsorts) of its own, with entry points, a flow, and a natural connection.
Lovely to see out of the box content thinkers! Thanks for sharing. 😀