How To Design For Designers
Insights on how Brit + Co., Pinterest, and Dot & Bo created a user-centered marketplace for hobbyists and professional designers
“What really inspires me is working for a company that empowers designers, creatives, and DIY artists to do what they do best. It gives them the tools and the resources to make a living doing what they are passionate about. I love being a part of that. ”
In truth, my friend was able to put into words in a matter of seconds what I had been working to figure out for a long time. What is it about this particular vertical of tech companies that fascinates me and keeps me coming back for more? I could easily be classified as a Pinterest fanatic, opened my own Society6 shop, and feel warm and fuzzy knowing that my Etsy purchases are helping out a small business owner across the country.
In the ensuing several weeks, I arranged coffee dates, tea samplings, and food truck visits with product designers and professionals. I attempted to pin down how they successfully design interfaces that inspire and enable creativity for their user base. Beyond that, I pried to see how much of that creative passion is embedded into the company culture, itself.
After meeting with Zane Riley of “Brit + Co”, I found that the company shared the same sentiment for enabling their users to do what inspires them. “Brit +Co” is a DIY centered site with a wide range of services offered. They are an e-commerce site, a woman’s-interest blog, a tutorial platform (paired with crafting kits), and occasionally a holiday pop-up shop! The ultimate goal is to help women be creative, whatever avenue that takes them. When designing for their users, they need to take certain constraints into account. For instance, Zane described several of their user personas to me: the busy mom looking for an activity to do with her kids, the bride learning calligraphy for her wedding invites, the young professional looking up a quick example of balayage hair on the way to the salon, etc.
Time constraints are a big consideration for designing for these women. The design team responded to this with UI that is graphic, simple and easy to navigate to help their users quickly find inspirational content.
Brit, the founder and CEO, has a clear passion for crafting, which radiates through the site. What I was surprised to find was that most of the employees are equally passionate about learning and sharing creative skills.
Fostering an internal culture of DIY and learning
Zane described the office culture as vibrant and buzzing with creative energy. Most of the the DIY teachers are “Brit + Co” employees, their friends, or talented individuals that were recruited organically. “Usually one of us knows how to do something, or has a friend that is an expert at this or that, or someone will reach out and ask to teach.” For example, in the upcoming week he mentioned a coworker would be teaching a bee keeping class! I was both apprehensive and enticed by how that was going to work.
Meeting their users in person
The design team produces the kind of content they would want, but also are listening to their users. They bring users in for user testing, and track their analytics for quantitative feedback. Most of the staff attended their holiday pop-up shop to see their users in real life interacting with their product, and experience what “Brit + Co” looks like in a physical space.
Dot & Bo, nestled in the heart of Potrero Hill’s design district, is an online market that curates themed collections of modern furniture. Sitting down with Cate McDonough, I learned about what makes them unique in this space.
Helping designers bring a story to life
The site’s immersive narrative structure helps its users design rooms that tell a story and have distinctive personalities. Themes range from “Rustic Seaside Bungalow” to “Refined Bohemian Bliss”. Users select a room, concept, or destination, and let their taste guide them to create a cohesive space. Their user base ranges from interior designers and visual merchandisers, to the everyday millennial decorating their home or apartment. Currently, they are expanding their focus to create fashionable work spaces aimed both at small businesses and larger enterprises. Dot & Bo hires interior designers as customer consultants and curators, keeping their mission and creative energy alive within the office.
Harnessing a powerful user base to provide designers with visibility
Both “Brit + Co” and Dot & Bo can attribute much of their site traffic to Pinterest, the visual DIY bible. With over 100 million monthly active users (Source: here), it has become the authority on visual information for a wide variety of design focuses, including interior design, photography, art, fashion, makeup, cooking, and crafting. I met with their Product Design Producer Hannah Scott to discuss how Pinterest designs for all types of users, and the direction she saw the company going. Having worked at the company for three years, she has seen the company transform from a young startup to the rocket ship it is today. The design team started out with just a handful of designers and has expanded to more than 40 designers today. The benefit is that people are able to focus on aspects of the site that hadn’t gotten much attention before.
Designing for the masses, customizing for the creators
I had the misconception that Pinterest had started as a tool for design professionals to showcase their work. In actuality, their first users were Silbermann’s friends and family. The result was focusing on the everyday creative person, not just the professional artists, designers, etc. Since then, Pinterest has created many features that add useful information to help users discover and save creative ideas. For example, Place Pins can show a map and phone number, directing users to a business or event. Product Pins include a price and location of where to buy an item, and recipe Pins include useful information like ingredients and cook time. These Rich Pins (source: here) provide the content creator value by driving more traffic and purchases to their site, while creating a friendlier and more useful user experience for the consumer.
Utilizing user data to resolve pain points
Hannah began her career at Pinterest in a user facing role, allowing for a clear view of users pain points. For instance, her team saw many users were creating duplicate accounts under the same name and profile picture. Users were having login issues and creating new accounts rather than retrieving lost passwords. This led to lots of inactive and duplicate accounts. She and her team brought these findings to the product team who were able to resolve the issue by improving login assistance through the design team polishing the user experience and engineering refining user recognition.
So what’s next for Pinterest? As the company continues to grow, a new challenge for them is designing for the everyday creative person in different countries. Outside of the US, Pinterest has a strong following in the UK for fashion, and Japan for art, but that’s just the beginning.
The design team works with our research team in other countries to adjust the site for cultural differences. By drawing inspiration from around the world, Pinterest is working to expand on a global scale.
Preserving their startup values and creative vibrance
As each of these companies continue to expand, it will be interesting to see how they change and adapt for new market segments and user personas. Zane of Brit + Co. remarked how different it is to walk around the office and see unfamiliar faces, in comparison to when he was first starting out. He described how they might be outgrowing their space, but that doesn’t stop the creative juices from flowing. For instance, sometimes photographers will use the snack kitchen as a space for their photoshoots, a thuroughfare for the rest of the company. This shows both their inventive use of space and collaborative nature. As a whole, I was pleased to learn that these sites that fuel my creative fire are just as passionate about their design internally.
Key takeaways: From the professional interior designer to the busy businesswoman looking for some weekend relaxation, there are many different use cases and needs to take into consideration when designing in this space. The best way is to not only meet your users and watch them interact with your product, but to internalize the user experience by crafting a company culture that is equally creative.
Thoughts on designing for this industry? I’d love to hear from you! Find me at @sharondesign92
