screenshot of Instagram app on a pale pink background

Instagram Stories goes worldwide.

A global accessibility initiative to localize Instagram Stories.

Background

Instagram was designed for the English user

In 2022, Instagram was still designing components in English, and then having them translated by our localization team. I was tasked with making Instagram Stories more accessible for non-English users, so that our global community doesn’t feel like an afterthought.

Problem

Not just translation, but accessibility

Designing for a global audience requires more than simply adding new typefaces or switching language settings. True parity means building intentionality into every component.

For instance, in the previous design system, long text strings would automatically shrink to unreadable sizes. This made them difficult to read and tap, creating a clear accessibility gap. Addressing these nuances is essential to building inclusive, functional tools for all users.

Process

Expanding the scope

Merely switching one's phone settings and calling it a day isn't enough. After recognizing the accessibility issues that this posed, we expanded the project to include the entire creation user experience in order to account for various factors that weren’t considered in the original project brief.

Refreshed sticker tray 01

A complete component re-design. The original three-column sticker tray was designed for an English interface. A refresh of this accommodates longer string-lengths and preserves the integrity of IG across various scripts.

  • +18.00% stories creation rate
  • -27.00% tap target errors

Scalable documentation 02

For our engineering partners, we developed a set of specifications on how to accommodate various languages, with this preservation of sticker height in mind.

  • -38.00% localization support tickets

Internationalization design principles 03

As I studied the global scripts, I uncovered patterns that shaped how I designed native components for different languages.

Seeing the broader potential, I documented these insights as a set of international design principles. This resource now helps designers across the company create more thoughtful, inclusive experiences for our global audience.