First impressions matter, and there is no one that knows that most than brand managers and social media influencers. Since the feed is the first thing people will see when they search for an account, numerous profiles have relied on combining together individual pictures to make an impactful impression. A quick search on Pinterest is enough to find multiple examples of it. In fact, planning and designing the feed view is so popular that apps dedicated to this exit.

Thanks to Instagram locked 3 column view in the feed, mosaics have been one of the most popular ways to make that first impression more impactful. However, unless this technique is used in special accounts like @solitudeinsawtooth or @brotherhoodofwonderstone, that they are designed to not be updated, chances are you have encountered a profile with one of this mosaics. And if you have done so, chances are these mosaics where displaced.

The Problem

A post that is supposed to show a complete image in the profile feed…

… turns into morphed image that does not match.

The solutions

There are many different techniques that can be used to avoid this issue. See some of my proposals in the following lines.

Using columns

As shown in the image above, content that only links vertically with others tiles will never move out of place, no matter how many images are uploaded afterwards. (As long as instagram does not change the grid size)

Tiling all side

Normally tiled content that spans the three columns is designed to be experienced in only one position. However, if you are ok with having no text that goes through the columns, you might be able to design a mosaic that works well no matter the positions of the columns. To do that it is necessary to link all sides of the columns between them, so column 1 links to 2, column 2 links to 3 and, the hardest, column 3 links back to 1 on the other side. The letter being the most complicated since there must be a vertical step of 1 tile.