Instagram Environments

We all know that video calls aren’t the best experience. The grid of faces feels impersonal, it’s awkward to see your own face, and IRL you would rarely just stare at someone and have a conversation. Instead, you’d play a game, eat a meal, or go for a walk. An important part of our time spent together is shared experience–the amazing meal you shared together, the unforgettable concert. Our goal with Instagram Environments was to explore how we could make video calling more like hanging out in real life.

I managed the creative team as a product team lead, working closely with the product manager, engineering manager, product designers, and researchers to set the roadmap, and develop and ship this feature in Instagram’s video call system in July 2022. I am named on a pending patent for this technology.

Environment Designs

We designed ten environments, divided into categories. Here are a few of my favorites!
All environments were conceived by myself and my team, and executed by Factory15.

Destination: Beach Resort

Why settle for catching up in your home-office when you could be relaxing at a south pacific resort surrounded by palms and colorful tropical fish? This environment shows off the design aesthetic we developed for environments–a blend of realistically modeled and rendered elements with stylized low-poly elements. This creates immersive, believable worlds which hint at the metaverse to come. Elements like a boombox and tv are included for integrations with co-listen and watch together

Public Space: Museum

Take your next call in the halls of the Metapolitain Museum of Art, where you can visit different curated galleries or upload your own exhibits. Our vision for this environment was to partner with artists and curation organizations (such as Meta Open Arts or galleries) to showcase rotating galleries of art for folks to enjoy during their virtual hang-outs.

Home Space: Loft

Act out your MTV’s Real World fantasies in this stylized Brooklyn artists loft. Start a band, play some console games, zone out on the lava lamp, or just get into a giant loft-sized fight about something super trivial. Just another day in the Real World!

Client: Meta
Role: Creative Director
2021-2022