Last week, we asked people to show us their favorite effect from Effects > Default. A little known fact: Each of those options was named for (or by) a Pixlr user who came up with the idea for the effect back when we first developed the app. We wanted to know which ones our community of users liked the best, and we were curious if our own 3 favorites lined up. We also have data from our mobile app that shows which of these options are the most used generally, so we thought why not do a semi-unscientific experiment — just for fun.
Firs things first: The photos people shared last week were really great. Like, extra great. As for the data itself, we’re happy to report that our users overwhelmingly love one effect in particular: Hagrid. We’re also happy to report that Hagrid is also our favorite! But beyond that, our favorites didn’t completely line up with your most used effects last week. Here’s a chart that shows you how it breaks down.
- The chart overall shows which options our Instagram community chose the most: Hagrid, Anne, Antonio.
- The pink pieces of the pie represent our personal favorites: Hagrid, Sophia, Tony.
- The grey options are the ones users have chosen over the years the most: Anne, Antonio, Bob.
What did we learn from this?
- The generic app data seems to establish that people choose the things they see first the most. All of these effects are listed in alphabetical order, and people choose the ones near the top of the list more often. That makes sense. Casual users probably don’t spend time digging into every option, especially when doing that requires you to scroll further.
- Our community of users on Instagram (and on other social sites) really dig in and acquaint themselves with all of the options. Our generic app data doesn’t pick as many strong favorites, but our power users have very clear favorites, which was what we expected. Beyond the data, we saw it in the detailed descriptions people wrote. It was really rewarding to read why people liked their favorite!
- Our own 3 favorites were as subjective as we thought they would be. Our community had similar tastes to our own, but they didn’t fully line up. Except for Hagrid. We both love Hagrid the most.
- One thing feels indisputable: Hagrid is pretty great. Although casual users don’t choose it the most (probably because it’s not named with an A, B, or C), it’s clearly one of the best options in the pack.
We declare the winner of this challenge to be Hagrid. It wasn’t really any kind of competition, but it just feels like Hagrid rules.
This week’s challenge: #pixlr #halloween
That’s the breakdown of our unscientific experiment. This week, we aren’t going to collect any data. We just want to see #pixlr #halloween pics. We added 3 new packs for Halloween photo festooning, and we simply want to see what you make with these. Even better, show us your Halloween costume! We want to find and feature the best photos that scream Halloween, whether they use our seasonal effects or not. Tag images with both hashtags #pixlr #halloween, and we’ll scare up our favorites and post them on Instagram, on our Made with Pixlr feed, and even on our home page.