Case Study
Reimagining Pinterest for Creative College Students
Redesigned key Pinterest features to better support creative college students with busy schedules. Focused on simplifying pin organization, improving ad transparency, and reducing cognitive overload—resulting in a more intuitive, personalized experience.
Timeline
Jan - Mar 2025
Tools
Figma
Role
UI/UX Design
More Purposeful Inspiration
Pinterest is a platform full of ideas—but for college students, it's often more overwhelming than empowering. Our challenge was to help users do something with their inspiration, not just save it. We set out to reduce friction, improve clarity, and create a more focused experience that helps students turn ideas into action.
Not Just Saving, But Actually Creating
Students use Pinterest to spark creativity for nails, outfits, dorm decor, or events. But despite using the platform regularly, many never return to the pins they save. Between hidden ads, confusing UI, and mental overload, Pinterest often becomes a graveyard of untapped ideas.
We wanted to fix that—not by adding more features, but by making the experience more human and purposeful.
How might we reduce friction and decision fatigue?
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Help users organize and act on inspiration with fewer steps
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Clarify content types and simplify flows to reduce overwhelm
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Respect users’ limited time and attention by making every action feel meaningful
Research-Backed Redesign
We conducted interviews and created a persona to reflect real user pain points.
Users told us:
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“I forgot what I saved things for.”
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“I don’t like that I’m redirected randomly.”
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“It’s hard to find old pins again.”
We also ran a heuristic evaluation and compared Pinterest to competitors like TikTok and Instagram. Pinterest’s *visual power* is unmatched—but its usability needed help.
Top pain points:
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Invasive ads disguised as organic content
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Saving pins takes too many steps
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“Hide” vs. “Not Interested” is confusing
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Feed suggestions often irrelevant
UX Design Solutions Explored
Idea | What It Solves |
|---|---|
Clearer visual hierarchy & grouping | Helps users visually process faster |
Replace “Hide” with “Not Interested” | Consistency with other platforms |
Streamlined home feed with tuning | Personalizes experience, avoids overload |
Label ads with visual tags + redirect modals | Prevents accidental frustration |
Dropdown to save pins to recent boards | Reduces clicks and memory load |
Lo-Fi Wireframes
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Prototyping With Purpose
We redesigned the pin saving flow by introducing a dropdown menu that surfaces the most recently used boards. This small but impactful change helps users save pins faster, with fewer taps and less cognitive effort—a key improvement for students juggling time and attention.
In the original design, users were forced to either accept a default “My Saves” board or manually scroll to find their desired board every time, which often led to disorganization and frustration. By surfacing recent boards, our version anticipates user intent and streamlines repetitive tasks.
“I never know where my pins go—I just give up.”
Save Flow: Board Selection ————————————————————————————————————————————————
Sponsored Content: Transparency ——————————————————————————————————————————
We added a clear “Sponsored” label and a confirmation modal when users click on promoted content to reduce frustration from unintentional redirections. Previously, ads often blended seamlessly into the feed, making it hard to distinguish them from organic content—especially when scrolling quickly.
Our redesign not only helps users identify sponsored content at a glance, but also gives them the choice to stay or proceed before leaving the app. This empowers users, builds trust, and aligns with modern UX standards around consent and transparency.
“I didn’t even realize it was an ad until I was already redirected somewhere else.”
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Tuning the Feed ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————
We replaced the vague “Hide” option with a more familiar and clear “Not Interested” label to help users better control their home feed content. Many users didn’t understand what “Hide” actually did—or even know it was an option—causing them to feel stuck with irrelevant or repetitive content.
Our redesign aligns Pinterest’s language with other mainstream platforms like Instagram and TikTok, reducing confusion and cognitive load. This small wording change improves visibility, increases engagement with feed controls, and empowers users to actively shape their content experience.
“I didn’t know you could hide stuff... I just kept seeing the same things I didn’t care about.”
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Visual and Behavioral Nudges
We leveraged color contrast, spacing, and content hierarchy to simplify cognitive load. Even small changes—like smarter defaults and clearer language—created a more welcoming flow for casual creatives.
Validation Through Expert Review
We ran our redesign through Nielsen’s heuristics and WCAG guidelines.
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Fixed violations around system visibility, memory load, and accessibility
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Reduced unnecessary redirects and improved screen reader clarity
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Aligned user control language with platform norms
Reflection
This project helped us practice rapid iteration—from user stories and wireframes to interactive prototypes. We learned that:
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User frustration often comes from small, repeated friction points
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Naming and verbiage have big usability impacts
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Simple confirmation dialogs can massively improve trust
My Roles & Takeaways
I contributed to the expert review, wireframing, and research synthesis. This project taught me the value of:
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Designing for behavior, not just visuals
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Using small, intentional changes to reduce overwhelm
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Centering clarity, feedback, and flexibility in every interaction
What's Next?
If we had more time, we would:
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Run usability tests with more users
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Introduce a guided “project builder” flow from saved pins
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Add collaborative board features for shared creativity
Want to offer feedback? Feel free to reach out to me at jatjia07@gmail.com 😊