Flickr was once the leading photo hosting platform, home to billions of photos and over 2 million photography groups. Though the space is now crowded with competitors, Flickr remains committed to its mission—helping photographers share their work, connect, and discover new visual stories—while refining its niche in the industry.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

My project focused on reimagining how Flickr could better serve today’s photography hobbyists. As the sole UX researcher, I used both qualitative and quantitative methods to uncover their needs and preferences. I presented my insights and recommendations to the Flickr team, including the Head of Flickr, identifying a $1.57B market opportunity and influencing business priorities, product direction, and marketing strategies.

DURATION
June – September 2024

ROLE
User Research Intern

METHODS
Literature Review, Stakeholder Interviews, Surveys, and Interviews

TEAM
Director of Product Design
Sr. Product Designer

PROBLEM STATEMENT

With the rise of Facebook and Instagram, Flickr faces challenges in attracting new users and retaining its existing base as competition from free photo-sharing platforms grows. This led the Director of Product Design to pose the question:

'If Flickr were built for today’s emerging photo hobbyists, what would it look like?'

STAKEHOLDERS INTERVIEW

I started by interviewing stakeholders to align on business goals and validate user assumptions. These conversations included executives and cross-functional team members, providing internal insights that shaped the direction of the project.

*This is a simulation of our conversation with cross-functional team members.

LITERATURE REVIEW

After speaking with internal stakeholders, I identified a gap between Flickr's vision as a people-first, responsible company and its current product execution. To better understand this gap, I explored external research on the latest trends in photo-sharing and photography. Over the next week, I reviewed:

Here are a few notable insights:

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH INSIGHTS

These insights suggest Flickr should shift its focus toward today’s photography hobbyists, moving beyond its traditional emphasis on prosumer photographers.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

These insights also inform the hypothesis guiding my primary research:

  1. Flickr has not yet successfully attracted young, smartphone, or female photographers.

  2. Younger photographers have limited awareness of Flickr compared to other social media platforms for photo-sharing.

  3. Flickr has the opportunity to reposition itself as a professional but ethical photo-sharing platform.

TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC

Based on the hypothesis, my research targets photography hobbyists under 40 who are passionate about photography, enjoy sharing their photos, and are not active Flickr users.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

I revisited the problem statement and broke it down into specific research questions. With no existing research to build on, I incorporated market research questions into my study to help identify key demands and opportunities for Flickr.

  1. Who are the photography hobbyists? → What are the market opportunities?

  2. Why is it important to capture these photography hobbyists? → What is the market size?

  3. Do they need Flickr? Why? → What needs can Flickr satisfy in their photography journey?

  4. Why did past users leave Flickr? → What low-hanging fruit can Flickr pursue to attract photography hobbyists?

SURVEY

To answer the market research questions, I conducted a survey to collect large, representative data for analysis. The aim was to understand the current photo-sharing landscape, gain deeper insights into photography hobbyists, uncover market opportunities, and estimate the market size.

SURVEY DESIGN

The following survey logic is designed to guide respondents through relevant questions, ensuring accurate data and enabling meaningful analysis. The full survey can be accessed through this. The full survey can be accessed through this link.

SURVEY QUESTIONS

Since the company owns SmugMug, a platform for professional photographers, I collaborated with SmugMug’s UX Researcher to develop survey questions comparing Flickr and SmugMug users, building on previous research. The following is a sample question:

I initially preferred a simpler survey to maintain response quality, but I underestimated how eager photographers were to share feedback. This resulted in comprehensive insights that helped compare photographer profiles across both platforms on Flickr and SmugMug.

SURVEY RECRUITMENT

The real question is…how can we reach photographers who aren’t using Flickr?

I began by reaching out to university clubs. However, we received no responses after sending 300 emails, as students typically don't check emails over the summer, and many student club accounts were inactive. Inspired by a previous conversation with an engineer, I decided to engage our target audience on Reddit and Discord.

To address potential concerns about professionalism, I reached out to moderators privately before posting, ensuring we followed community guidelines. Within the next week, we received 871 quality survey responses, filtered by demographic and completeness. Over 75% of respondents were not Flickr users, and the gender distribution was nearly equal!

INTERVIEW

With the surge in survey responses after posting on Reddit, I was able to review the data, which helped shape the research questions. Below is a high-level summary of the interview findings. The full interview script can be accessed through this link.

Please feel free to click on the key themes of the interview questions to explore the rationale behind each one:

  • The survey showed most hobbyists pick up a camera during a trip or through others' influence. This insight helped the marketing team identify channels to reach them and ways Flickr could support their photography journey.

  • While storage drives Flickr's revenue, its photo-sharing community is most valuable to photographers. Therefore, understanding both the storage and sharing features, along with how Flickr can better integrate into photographers' workflows, is essential.

  • Several survey respondents mentioned wanting a safe, reliable space to store their photos. This insight prompted me to further assess whether Flickr’s value propositions—visibility, privacy, and community—aligned with the values of photography hobbyists.

RESEARCH INSIGHTS

Despite being an inclusive, community-based photo-sharing platform, Flickr has yet to capture the interest of hobbyists who are 1–2 years into their photography journey, use a smartphone to take photos, and identify as female. To surface this underserved segment, we applied k-means clustering to over 800 survey responses (an unsupervised learning method well-suited for discovering natural patterns in user data) uncovering three personas.

While I can’t disclose the personas due to NDA limitations, I can share some of the key insights that shaped our strategy.

The three personas represent a $1.57 billion market opportunity in the U.S., with even greater potential globally. This reveals a clear gap in Flickr’s engagement strategy and a strong opportunity to reach underserved photography communities.

Photography hobbyists are actively seeking a platform that supports discovery through tags and metadata, preserves high image quality for storage and sharing, and fosters a safe, ethical community. They want a space to connect, find inspiration, and grow alongside more experienced photographers. Flickr is well-positioned to meet these needs but has yet to fully deliver on this potential.

I explored why photography hobbyists stopped using Flickr to identify opportunities to better attract and retain this audience. A key insight is that many former users left before fully experiencing Flickr’s core features. Most discovered the platform through social media, leading to a fragmented first impression and limited understanding of its value. Former users often had a shallow, transactional entry point, while current users began with deeper, community-driven motivation. In contrast, current users often joined through word-of-mouth, which offered richer context and fostered a stronger initial connection.

The following reasons explain why photography hobbyists aren’t using Flickr, reinforcing the earlier insight that many non-users never fully experienced the platform. Additionally, the user experience could be improved through low-hanging fruit initiatives—such as UX copy that informs users how photo quality impacts speed, and a simplified onboarding system.

IMPACT

Due to NDA restrictions, I cannot share specific recommendations. However, the research informed a long-term growth strategy projected to increase user acquisition by 30% over five years. It also revealed a $1.57B U.S. market opportunity and helped re-prioritize product and business goals. The work generated strong cross-functional alignment, with prototypes driving immediate interest from engineering and leadership teams, including the Head of Flickr.

Reflection

If I had more time…

Conduct usability testings to prioritize feature improvements based on performance and preference metrics.

We gained valuable insights from market reserach and user research, but these primarily measured preferences (satisfaction) and emotions rather than performance. To prioritize feature improvements effectively, it's crucial to understand the performance issues hindering the user experience.

Personal Growth

Waking up to my dream job every single day feels AMAZING.

I enjoy my day-to-day work in research, wearing multiple hats, and seeing the impact I can make while collaborating with other teams. In addition, being part of Flickr was truly an eye-opening experience for me. As a data science major at UC Berkeley, where data ethics are emphasized in the curriculum, I am inspired by Flickr’s commitment to its users, their data, and its impact on the environment through films, partnerships, and more. As a young professional, I feel privileged to be part of a company that contributes positively to society early in my career.

“Give yourself some grace.”

That was my manager Liz's feedback when I asked for her thoughts on my work, presentation, and our day-to-day interactions toward the end of my internship. As a young, aspiring UX professional, I have always devoted myself fully to every opportunity. Liz's feedback serves as a reminder to balance personal growth, career growth, and individual well-being, and not to be too harsh on myself.