Pinterest Onboarding
Increasing user retention by improving onboarding architecture
Timeline
~3 days of research
36-hour sprint (Jan 2024)
for KP Design Challenge
Tools
Figma + FigJam
Notion
Skills
Product Thinking
UI/UX Design + Writing
Team
Just me!
Learning - What is Pinterest?
First, I researched Pinterest as a company to get a holistic picture of how I could use design to drive both user experience and their business goals. I learned that while Pinterest has social elements to it, such as collaboration, commenting, and sharing, it primarily is a collective repository of visual ideas.
Problem Discovery
I interviewed 5 individuals with a range of Pinterest experience.
2 non-users
1 occasional user (whenever necessary)
2 regular users (multiple times per week)
What value do regular Pinterest users get?
What is your relationship with Pinterest?
What prompted you to visit the site or make an account?
What do you primarily use Pinterest for?
What do non-users think Pinterest is about?
What do you think Pinterest is used for?
What might make you start using Pinterest?
If you were to create an account today, what might you use Pinterest for?
I also conducted usability tests to see how everyone interacted with the platform.
Navigating the sign up process (for new users)
Navigating how to save a pin and create a board
Walk me through how you would normally use Pinterest (for regular users)
I concluded with the final 2 questions:
What is the most valuable aspect of Pinterest to you?
Is there anything you would like to see improved?
Main Insights
1. Pinterest isn’t showcasing it’s value proposition to new users.
Saving pins and organizing them into boards isn't highlighted at all during the current onboarding process.
"You're kind of thrown into the deep end of a gallery of photos and asked to figure it out on your own."
"This feels like Google Image search. What am I doing with all these images?”
“I didn’t expect Pinterest to be this scrolly—it’s more similar to Instagram than I thought.”
2. As a result, new users struggle to navigate the platform.
This is a huge user retention problem.
If users are frustrated with the platform due to a poor introduction to the interface, they are very likely to leave.
Interacting with Pins is a huge part of Pinterest’s feed algorithm. If users don't know how to Save Pins and Create Boards...how do you improve their home feed recommendations so that they can find value in the platform?
"I know what I want to do (e.g. reordering images), but I can’t act on those thoughts because the website is unintuitive.”
"The home feed is just so much stuff at the same time, which makes it cluttered and harder to extract useful information.”
3. These feelings are exacerbated by an unfriendly Sign Up flow.
On the Sign Up page:
"It feels like I'm filling out a form rather than signing up.”
On the Download Mobile App page:
"This phone prompt is a little annoying."
On the Choose Interests page:
“I have to pick four more?"
4. Regular users noted small improvements to be made, but most were satisfied with their experiences.
When answering the question "What would you like to see improved?," they noted:
"Making boards more accessible on the homepage, which you can only access through your profile right now."
"Keywords can become quite useless because—people upload pins with unrelated names or no name at all."
"If you don’t save something to a board, you’re probably not going to find it again, keywords won’t match up."
Focusing in on a Goal
Redesigning the Onboarding Flow could improve new user experiences and improve retention.
I relied on both the usability tests I conducted to guide the process, as well as the onboarding flows for various other platforms to make sure I was consistent with industry standards / practices.
The final design:
Design Decisions
1. Restructuring the Sign-Up Flow
Inconsistent UI and Lack of Hierarchy
The screens feel simultaneously busy and empty.
Uneven distribution of Elements
There are 6 different Sign Up elements on the first screen, 2 on the second, and 1 on the third.
Design Improvements
Re-Organizing Steps
I grouped related steps together to make it easier for users to understand what was going to happen next.
Example: Entering your personal information together on one screen (birthday, gender).
Improve Visual Hierarchy
I used text size and weight to draw attention to the title and subtitle, and then direct viewers eye downward.
Example: Differentiated Terms of Service Text with Login (squished together before)
Removed Extraneous Steps
I decided to move differentiation between a personal and business account selection for later.
Right now, the focus is just making an account.
UX Writing
Additional to these core UX changes, I also played around with the content writing.
The "Find new ideas to try" subtitle in the old flow didn't sound too exciting...
I felt "Discover your next great idea" was more action-oriented and aligned with Pinterest's goals for its users.
2. Personal vs. Business Account
Design Analysis
Sign Up / Login Focus, not Business Accounts
The "Create a free business account" added to the clutter of the old Sign Up screen. I ended up replacing the bottom gray button with the "Log In" prompt.
Design Improvements
Personal vs. Business Account Screen
I put the account type decision for users here, after they entered the necessary personal information for Sign Up.
I also played around with the UX Writing here to describe the main goals of each type of account.
3. Choosing Your Interests
Design Analysis
Not Accounting for Different User Goals
“I have to pick four more?"
One of the new users I interviewed only had a very specific goal in mind and didn't want to choose more prompts. This got me thinking about how to make onboarding more flexible for different user goals.
Design Improvements
Being Flexible
I added a "Skip for Now" button to allow users to not choose any interests. A prompt could be added later to reinitiate this process to help tune the algorithm if needed.
Additionally, adding a search function helps really focused users to find exactly what they want in their home feed.
4. Removing 3 Screens from the Flow
Design Analysis
Promotion before Showing Product Value
This was a huge point of frustration for me—why is there a prompt to download the mobile app when users haven't gotten to even interact with the product yet?
Design Improvements
Show Users the Feed Faster
I chose to remove these steps so that the user could see the actual feed faster. My guided tutorial of the interface would explain the idea of recommendations WHILE showing the actions that drive them (saving).
5. Interface Tutorial
Design Analysis
Small Pop-Ups for Feedback are Ignored
Currently, Pinterest uses pop up boxes and small notifications at the bottom of the screen as feedback for user actions.
These are really small on the screen, and most users don't notice them. Additionally, the content of these pop-ups is vague and gives no direct instructions.
Inconsistent Onboarding
In the instance documented above, when I was testing the onboarding flow, I was shown this "Create a Board" prompt after I saved a pin.
However, in the usability tests that I conducted, neither of the users saw this pop up on their screens, and had no idea what a board was.
Design Improvements
New Home Feed Components
I added this utility bar at the top of the home feed so it's as easy as possible to create a new board or pin, and to access recent boards.
Step-by-Step Guide
I created a tutorial that moves around the screen and helps users explore the interface while learning how to use key features of the platform.
Minimized Home Feed Content
From my usability tests and interviews, users were overwhelmed by the wall of images on the feed. I shrank the 6 columns down to 4 to allow users to focus on less images.
Explore the Prototype
Reflections
Designing Out Edge Cases
Due to the quick nature of this design sprint, I wasn't able to design and prototype out all of the interactions in the sign up flow.
However, I will be working on creating these! Keep a look out for updates.
Merging Intuition and Research
I relied heavily on the usability tests I conducted, as well as examples of other interface designs to inform my design choices.
I used the website Mobbin a ton to analyze other onboarding flows.
Visual Craft supports good UX.
While my gut reaction to the original Pinterest screens were that they didn't look as polished as I would've expected, through further analysis I realized there was an issue with the underlying architecture supported by the UI.
Good visual design is part of good experience design.
Going Forward
Through this project, I realized so many other things that I want to explore redesigning on Pinterest. I would love to explore some of those in a future design sprint!
Thank You!
A big thank you to all of my interviewees for allowing me to pester you with questions and help me learn about what I could help improve on Pinterest's platform. I owe it all to you!
