Pinterest to the Rescue
user logs into Pinterest and utilizes the home decor pattern to create a plan
Pinterest Planning Patterns
Overview
Project Timeline
Main Approach
Pinterest is an online social media platform that allows people to discover and organize visual web content.
For this concept project, I designed a planning pattern feature and flow to allow Pinners (Pinterest users) to more easily and quickly plan life moments using the Pinterest platform. The business goals were to increase the rate of pinning and product discovery and to expand opportunities for brand and product advertising partnerships.
DURATION
May 2019
(3 weeks)
PRODUCT
Responsive Web
+ iOS App
ROLE
UX Designer
(lead for wireframing + prototyping)
Problem Definition
Competitive Analysis
Brainstorm + Ideation
Exploration + Validation
Final Designs
The following statistics impacted the approach I took on this project.
User Problems
Competitive Analysis
291 MILLION
people use Pinterest
every month
85% WOMEN USERS
use Pinterest to plan life moments (i.e. decorating a home, vacations, meals, gym routines, party planning)
79.5% USERS
are women
80% USERS ARE MOBILE
being mobile friendly is key
To further understand the main problem and pain points in planning events, I spent time analyzing data + gathering feedback from existing Pinterest users and event planners.
To gain more insight, I took stock of how Pinterest’s competitors were addressing similar problems. These were the questions I asked:
1. How do competitors guide users to use new features?
All competitors use visually contrasting guides (i.e. pop up bubbles or flashing icons)
2. How do competitors easily give a visual summary of each event?
5 out of 6 competitors use a grid or dashboard layout to visually summarize each event/profile
3. How many of the competitors make the flow mobile friendly?
4 out of 6 competitors are mobile friendly and have a mobile app
Main Summary
Success Metrics
Qualitative
Users feel the flow is easy to learn and follow.
Users feel they want to use Pinterest to plan more.
Users feel they can successfully use this new feature on any type of device.
Quantitative
Decrease in time to get boards created + pinned to on Pinterest.
More pins getting pinned.
More users successfully planning for “life moments” + using more planning patterns.
Design Principles
There were the main principles I kept in mind when designing for this new feature.
Mobile First
prioritize accessibility
on multiple devices
Visual Prompts
use minimal text
in guides
Be Consistent
optimize existing design patterns
Ideation + Sketching
After getting to understand the user pain points a bit better, I took 20 minutes to generate as many ideas as possible and sketch them out.
Main Ideation Takeaways
UX Exploration
When deciding between which designs to use in the final mock-ups, I observed the pros and cons of each design option.
Overall Planning Pattern Layout
Visual Prompts for Guiding Through New Feature
Methods for Choosing Planning Patterns
User Journey
In Need of a Game Plan
user moves into a new home and needs to decorate but doesn’t know where to begin
Pinterest to
the Rescue
user logs into Pinterest and utilizes the home decor pattern to create a plan
Inspired, Time Saved, & Goals Met
the planning pattern allows for user to quickly plan, find ideas, and execute decorating
Successful Project,
On To The Next
user successfully completes this project + is ready to plan the next life moment
Final Designs
Desktop Flow
1. Start from profile
3. Filling out the Create Board form
5. ‘Home decor’ pattern is selected
2. Create a board
4. Making a pattern selection
6. New board from ‘Home decor’ pattern is created
7. Going into one of the pre-designated boards
Mobile Flow
Learn More Pages
Next Steps
