The Pinterest App:
Re-pinned for excellent user experience design!
-Jeni Joe
Pinterest is an app that allows users to create virtual pin boards. Users can browse through millions of ideas or ‘pins’, each represented by an attractive picture and can save or ‘pin’ the ideas they like, to create boards. The pins are classified according to various criteria like Popular, Videos, Animals and Pets, etc. Users can also search for ideas they like using the textual search bar or by using the ‘visual search’, where they select a portion of an image to yield images with similar content as the search result. If no search is used, the app presents users with content based on their previous searches or according to content popularity in the area of their interest.
Scratching at the surface, we observe how the screen space is managed. There is minimal textual content. The design contrast is high, interactions with the user interface are pretty jitter tolerant. Since touch interactions always cover some part of the screen, the widgets designed are sufficiently large. The app also includes indirect interaction, using the phone’s back button to go to the previous screen, thus also saving screen space. The data being presented is summarized to users in the form of very short text underneath each image.
Next, lets take a look at the design techniques used. The app uses tabs instead of windows or drop down menus which is the best navigation option, especially for tablets and mobile phones. There is no zoom feature, but the pictures link to the website they are posted on, from where users can zoom. The pictures posted however are all extremely high quality which eliminates the need for zoom on a general basis. Icons used are very intuitive. The ‘pin it’ icon might be unfamiliar to new users, and hence its accompanied by ‘Save’ as a textual description of what clicking that button does.
Looking more deeply into the responsive design techniques used in the Pinterest App, it can be observed that the width of the app adjusts according to the display device being used which eliminates the need for scrolling width wise. Font used is Helvetica (Arial, sans serif). This font is also used for the Pinterest logo, which keeps the design uniform. The font size adjusts according to the display device which allows for comfortable reading.
The app functions in the background as all good apps do: keeping the focus on the content. It allows users to access content in the best possible way: search content, filter search results, save search result for future reference, classify saved search results by creating boards for each category. The images, forming almost 90% of the content presented, are scalable according to device and have a low loading time, besides being of high quality. Content is presented in grids, separated by gutters, optimizing the use of white space.
In conclusion: Everyone say that the Pinterest App is addictive. Now we know why.
