Whether menu design or choice of light fixtures or tableware, people are really trying harder than they ever have because they realize it's making a very notable difference, Moyal says. One by one they crossed the street to stand in front of a mural of two children painted in trompe l'oeil style to appear as if they're riding a real bicycle that has been fixed to the wall. The digital media company Refinery 29 has run a pop-up installation called 29Rooms (# 29rooms, 29,000 + posts) for several years, featuring spaces designed for picture-taking and sharing: a giant typewriter you can walk on, a snow globe you can sit inside, neon signs with grammably inspirational sayings like care no matter what and a well-made choice can be beautiful. Janelle, as big an Instagram booster as they come, does think there's value in not always trying to snap a picture. Some are deliberately incorporating Instagram-appealing visuals that feature the restaurant's name or logo floor tiles, neon signs hoping they'll wind up in a snap. The city of George Town, in the Malaysian state of Penang, has long drawn tourists to its streets, where sherbet-colored shophouses, intricately tiled courtyards and historic temples and mosques prove irresistible photo fodder. As de Lange points out, this is antithetical to the values of urban theorists like Jane Jacobs, who posited that one of a city's greatest purposes was to bring diverse groups of strangers together. A recent piece in TimeOut Hong Kong listing the top 10 best places to Instagram in Hong Kong included places like a public housing estate with bright colored towers and a cargo pier known as Instagram pier (#instagrampier, 9,500 + posts) for its photogenic sunsets. (Instagram) is making the client really aware of the importance and the power of design, whether it's in wayfinding or branding or experiential design, says Laureen Moyal, founder and partner at the branding and design studio Paperwhite. Previously ignored bits of urban infrastructure manhole covers, crosswalks, subway tunnels become sought-out spots. They're encouraging picture-taking with whimsical furniture or cut-out clothing silhouettes designed for visitors to stand in and snap photos. Some are deliberately incorporating Instagram-appealing visuals that feature the restaurant's name or logo floor tiles, neon signs hoping they'll wind up in a snap. Notably, these lists often include places well off the standard tourist track. And then, presumably, they'd upload it to Instagram. Penang is one of a number of cities capitalizing on the wild popularity of photo-based social media apps such as Instagram, which has 800 million users (that's more than a tenth of the world s population).