The most brutalist and efficient library by Sidebay Studio

The use of cutting-edge materials and manufacturing processes in the design and production of Elements_Efi has resulted in a product that is both durable and sustainable, reducing the environmental impact of its use.

A Webflow library infused with the brutalist way.

The use of cutting-edge materials and manufacturing processes in the design and production of Elements_Efi has resulted in a product that is both durable and sustainable, reducing the environmental impact of its use.

Launch your portfolio, agency, startup faster than ever

The use of cutting-edge materials and manufacturing processes in the design and production of Elements_Efi has resulted in a product that is both durable and sustainable, reducing the environmental impact of its use.

Just drag, drop and make your first MRR faster

The use of cutting-edge materials and manufacturing processes in the design and production of Elements_Efi has resulted in a product that is both durable and sustainable, reducing the environmental impact of its use.

pinterest logo

pinterest redesign

Personalizing the Search & Discovery Experience

Given my love for Pinterest, a platform I frequently use for inspiration, I decided to focus on improving its search and discovery experience. This project allowed me to dive deep into the intersection of data, user behavior, and design, which is the core of how I approach problem-solving.

TIMELINE

2 Weeks (Nov 2020)

TEAM

Personal Project

ROLE

Research
User Interviews
UI/UX
Prototyping 

TOOLS

Figma

THE CHALLENGE

 Content irrelevancy  drives user frustration

Pinterest is known as a visual discovery engine where people find everything from home decor ideas to recipes, fashion inspiration, and beyond. While users love the platform, many feel that the content suggestions often miss the mark.

After conducting user interviews and combing through product reviews, I found that content irrelevancy was a significant frustration. Users weren’t able to find the right pins at the right time, which led to disengagement and a loss of trust in the platform's ability to deliver value.  According to Pinterest studies I found, Content Irrelevancy stems from challenges in predicting changing user intent, evolving interests, and sparse behavioral data.

problem statement i sought to answer

How can Pinterest improve content relevancy to make discovery more personalized and engaging?

FINAL REDESIGN PREVIEWS

Utilizing search page to track user behavior & identify user intent

CURRENT

REDESIGN

Adding visual previews during search

CURRENT

REDESIGN

Making the homepage customizable for more relevant pin suggestions

Adding a fun way for users to interact on a more personal level, on the home feed to improve algorithm

CURRENT

REDESIGN

An easier way to"edit your feed"

Users can tailor "For you" suggestions and see where recommendations are from, as well as customize their home feed

REDESIGN

REDESIGN

RESEARCH & data insights

I began by examining user behavior and gathering insights through interviews, surveys, and secondary research. Pinterest's internal studies revealed that goal-specific users—those searching with a defined purpose—were highly engaged but often left after finding what they needed. On the other hand, casual browsers tended to stay longer but weren’t as engaged with the platform's content.

  • Generally “spends more time on Pinterest, and engage more”

  • Sample behavior: Find ideas for ongoing projects or finding specific outfits ideas they have in mind

Goal-specific Users

Have specific, concrete goals when browsing on Pinterest

  • Generally “casually browsing with no particular goal in mind”

  • Sample behavior: Browsing on homepage to kill time or to find completely new ideas / inspirations

Goal Non-specific Users

Have less defined, abstract goals when browsing on Pinterest

Here's the key insights I've found:

  1. Content irrelevancy: Users often struggled to find content relevant to their specific needs. Search suggestions weren’t always aligned with user intent.
  2. Evolving Interests: User intent changes over time, which wasn’t being reflected in Pinterest’s recommendations.
  3. Engagement Gaps: Goal-specific users had high engagement in the short term but were less likely to revisit the app frequently. Meanwhile, non-goal-specific users were browsing aimlessly, and the app wasn’t tailoring suggestions to keep them engaged.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM DEEPER

The Challenge: Users' intent and interests change over time

Research Reference: Study from Pinterest Labs on Predicting Intent

Once goal-specific users accomplish what they set out to find, they often don’t transition into casual browsing, leading to fewer revisits. The question became:

How can we keep both goal-specific and nonspecific users engaged after they've met their initial objectives?‍‍

What this means for Pinterest:
To maintain engagement, Pinterest must tailor its content delivery.
- Goal-specific users need more relevant, highly targeted pins that align with their short-term or long-term goals.
- Goal-nonspecific users benefit from a broader array of diverse content to keep their discovery process engaging.Tailoring the feed based on user behavior and intent can help ensure a more personalized and sticky experience, keeping all user segments returning to the platform consistently.

My hypothesis

If Pinterest can accurately predict user intent by analyzing behavioral signals, the platform can dynamically adjust its user interface to deliver more personalized content. This will allow Pinterest to better meet the evolving needs and interests of users, ultimately enhancing their overall experience.

USER RESEARCH

Gathering user feedback  through app reviews & 4 in-depth user interviews

Common pain points identified
1. Irrelevant suggestions, not personalized to their evolving interests
2. No longer able to discover new content

Screenshot & quote from interviewees' Pinterest homepage

DEFINE

Focusing on high-impact personas (goal-specific users)

“Goal-specific users tend to spend more time on Pinterest than goal-nonspecific users”
- Study from Pinterest Labs

High-engagement users = goal-specific users,
For this project, I decided to focus on goal-specific users. These are some of their behaviors:

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPACT

How might we utilize the search experience to make Pinterest better predict user intent, in order to adjust suggestions that match user goals?

Current User Journey of a Goal-specific Pinterest User

Due to constraints, I chose to focus on only the Search page & search experience for this case study.
Behavior Assumption: Majority of goal-specific users proceed to search before browsing and exploring ideas
‍
Insights from user research:

  1. Goal-specific users “rely more on search to look for what they want” and “starts searching more quickly” after arriving on Pinterest

  2. Searching is also one of Pinterest’s sustaining competitive advantage that distinguishes them from other social media platforms.
  3. 6/6 of the people I interviewed usually proceed to searching right away 

User pain points in current search experience

Observations: Pinterest gives an entire screen for search, usually facilitating an exploratory search for users who does not have a clear intention yet - Provides an opportunity to interfere and encourage users to browse more. 

Friction points in users’ journey from interviews & user tests

Exploring different types of search/explore in other products

SPOTIFY

Exploratory search
‍Broad card categories, encourage users to browse new genres

INSTAGRAM

Federated search
Allowing users to search across all of its content simultaneously through one search query

TWITTER

Saved searches
Easy way to return to that search as many times as needed

EBAY

Related searches
Helps the user pick from a list instead of formulating a new query

Setting requirements: My redesign goals

01

Identify the most relevant suggested results

Design features to increase interaction, allowing for more data collection

02

Reduce interaction cost and improve user experience

Less typing, more tapping & focus more on visuals

03

Increase engagement of goal-specific users and increase retention

Suggest new topics users may be interested in

IDEATE

Redesigning the Search Experience - initial sketches

DESIGN EXPLORATIONS

Created a few low-fi designs & user tested to find the best option

Search Landing Page

Pre-query Search

After creating the low-fi prototypes, I tested with 4 users by giving them a scenario with a certain goal to complete on the platform. These were some key insights:

SEARCH LANDING PAGE RESULTS
  • 3/4 Users clicked through recent & related searches 
  • 2/4 Users swiped through collage carousel but none clicked through
  • 1/4 Users clicked through category topics after completing task


For the final version, I decided to combine all three designs of the search landing page.

PRE-QUERY SEARCH RESULTS
  • No users interacted with the federated search tab (top, saved, people) 
  • Users got confused between saved tab and saved search
  • Goal-specific users found saved search useful and helps save time


For the final version, I decided to go with Design #3.

'SAVED SEARCH' DESIGNS & TEST RESULTS

FINAL REDESIGN

Style Guide

For this redesign, my focus was on the user experience and so I tried to be as consistent to Pinterest’s current visual design style as possible. 

SEARCH LANDING REDESIGN

Utilizing search page to track user behavior & identify user intent

Adding varying intent features to facilitate enhanced user behavior analytics tracking, thereby improving the ability to accurately predict user intent.
‍
  • Tracking user click near the top (search bar and recent searches) can help predict level of goal-specific / high intent users 
  • Tracking user click in lower areas (explore more topics) can imply lower user intent/non goal-specific (less defined goals)

Current

Redesign

KEY CHANGES

Recent searches, related searches, and browse based on current boards 
  • ‍Allows users to start browsing right away without having to type. 
  • Allows Pinterest to know whether they have an ongoing project (goal-specific users) and better predict their behavior to suggest relevant content.
3-Picture Carousel
  • Made specific idea suggestions in carousel and included more than one photo to attract users. 
  • Added social proof under title
Broad Topics to Sub-Topics

For goal-specific users with lower intent to browse or goal-specific users who accomplished their goal (broad categories encourages them to discover new topics)

ENTERING SEARCH REDESIGN

Pre-Query Search

Key Changes:
  • Labeled Recent Searches
  • Added Saved Searches
  • Added personalized auto-suggestions ("Ideas for you" with visuals)

Current

Redesign

ENTERING SEARCH REDESIGN

Adding visual previews during search

As users are entering their search query, pins are displayed accordingly. This emphasizes one of Pinterest’s competitive advantage, which is its visual communication and visual search experience. A common frustration among users is they don’t know how to clearly express what they want to find in exact words. Providing visual previews can save user’s time and allow them to edit their search before entering the browsing experience.

Current

Redesign

HOMEPAGE REDESIGN

Making the homepage customizable for more relevant pin suggestions

Besides the search/explore page, I also analyzed the homepage by conducting a usability test with current users to see how Pinterest can further improve the relevancy of suggested results. These are the key takeaways from the test.

Pain points identified from user testing:
  • Users often associated this with ‘blocking’ - never interacted with it
  • “At first glance, it looks like I’m reporting a pin”
  • 4th image is overwhelming for users. Lots of texts and options to choose from.
  • Users don’t know they can proceed to edit their feed. Most users end up closing this page.
Current experience of hiding uninterested suggestions

See More Like This & See Less‍

Adding a fun way for users to interact on a more personal level, on the home feed to improve algorithm

Current

Redesign

HOMEPAGE REDESIGN

An easier way to"edit your feed"

Pain points identified from user testing:
  • Pinterest allows users to edit their feed but from usability tests, users unsuccessfully navigated to these pages. This feature was initially hidden deep in the account settings.
  • Users have to turn off many pins individually
Current experience of editing feed

Tailor "For you" suggestions & increasing transparency

Users can see where the recommendations are from and easily tailor their feed

Making it easier for users to customize feed

Due to varying interests and goals from goal-specific users, I believe this feature should be on the homepage.

CONCLUSION

Outcome

I showed these redesigns to several Pinterest users and these were their comments:
• “This actually really helps solve my pain points for my search journey”
• “Seeing these cards, I’m more likely to press into these categories and browse on Pinterest”
• “The collage for specific idea suggestions give me a good understanding of what types of pins I will see” 

Key Learnings

• Redesigning existing apps made me learn to pay attention to small details
• User testing is super important
• Understood the importance of the small details during search experience  
• Had to take into consideration business goals, data analytics goals while designing  
• Improved prototyping skills and learned how to use InVision Studio  

Next Project →
Let's connect

Email: graceleeswadtrakul@gmail.com
Feel free to reach out for collaborations, work opportunities, or just a friendly hello

Designed and built from scratch by Grace Leeswadtrakul © 2020
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