App Critique | Pinterest
This is part of a month long personal challenge to critique an app almost every day. It’ll be short and scrappy.
Why
The way I’d like to approach this critique is by pitting Pinterest’s promises as an app against the way its design was executed. Pinterest markets itself in the app store as the place for home design, DIY and recipe ideas. The preview screens share the following:
1\ Discover everyday inspiration.
2\ Save your faves. Picks based on your tastes.
3\ Try new things. Explore 100 billion ideas.
In summary, pinterest is a destination for inspiraton centered on interested.
Who
Based on the pictures used in the preview screens, Pinterest seems to be meant for people interested in cooking, home decoration and DIY projects. Often I’ve heard the app be presented as a “pocket for house moms”. Though I find, based on my personal experience, that Pinterest appeals to a broader audience.
Age and gender aside, Pinterest is meant for two types of users:
1\ People with a specific interest (most likely with a visual component such as decoration, illustration, fashion etc.) who want to stay abreast of the latest.
2\ People with a specific project who need to educate themselves and get inspired around the subject (buying new clothes, planning a trip, decorating a home etc.).
When & where
For each of these two segments, behaviors will differ:
1\ People with a specific interest (most likely with a visual component such as decoration, illustration, fashion etc.) who want to stay abreast of the latest: I need to find new material relating to my interest every time I open the app. I need to be able to save it and look at it later for inspiration. For these people, I expect Pinterest to have an inspiration section. Because I suspect these people are the bread and butter of the business since they’re the ones encountering the ads that fuel Pinterest’s business model, the inspiration surface is likely to be front and center in the app.
2\ People with a specific project who need to educate themselves and get inspired around the subject (buying new clothes, planning a trip, decorating a home etc.): I need to search for a specific subject and get a broad set of relevant results. I need to save the results that appeal most to me. I need to potentially share these results with my partner(s) or friend(s) to make a decision. I expect Pinterest to have a powerful search feature. I also expect them to have a way to create a collection out of the elements a user saves and a way to share that collection with someone.
What
Hence one can already intuit certain elements about the app’s IA and design system:
1\ The inspiration feed is central to the app or the default landing experience. Search is as important and is prominent in the app.
2\ Collections are a close second with an easy way to access.
3\ The design system must cater to individual items and to collections. Collections must give users an easy way to view the items they contain.
Critique & improvements
Information Architecture:
The IA mirrors our earlier analysis.
1\The app opens to a home feed. The apps tab at the bottom is modeled after a FAB so as give the feed even more space. It even disappears when the user starts scrolling. The pills at the top of the feed balance editorialism (“today”) and users’ tastes (in my case “packaging design”, “style”, “decoration” etc.)
2\ Search is the second tab after home ad. The results are highly personalized, echoing the JTBD of the second segment we identified. Indeed, a person looking for inspiration on a given project will want to be shown relevant search categories. Search also offers a visual search using the camera for shoppers who want to find inspiration based on things they’ve seen in the real world.
3\ Profile: What is most notable is the presence of a way to dismiss the profile header so as to focus on the boardds. This shows how well Pinterest is aligned with its mission and goals. People are not building an alter ego and not ecouraged to do so (not the absence of a cover picture). Rather, their interests and taste are put front and center.
User experience:
Smooth and elegant micro-interactions.
1\ Most noteworthy are the animations in the app: A product spawning on click to take over the entire screen. The speed at which the bottom sheets spawn up. The way to dismiss a product by pulling and releasing is very satisfying and the speed at which it lands back in place in the feed works well with the rest of the app.
User Interface:
A very consistent visual language throughout the app.
1\ Icons are very consistent throughout the app. The gear icon for settings in the profile tab is especially neat and far more interesting than the usual icons other apps use.
2\ Loading states are also very well thought out as they mirror the rest of the apps visual language and speed.
3\ The break down of different components in the product deep view as individual elements also makes it very clear to users which parts they can act on and which they cannot. [Improvement] This distinction however is not very clear as the fact I could “comment” on items was not clear to me beforehand. Pinterest could add a way for me to access my comments under profile to better convey that this is an important part of the ecosystem.
