Pinterest iMessage Extension
Role
Product Designer
Team
Sharing & Collaboration
Timeline
~3 weeks
Tools used
Figma, Principle, pen & paper
Background
iMessage is one of the top messaging platforms in the US, with 1.3B active users. As users share content with one another (there are 200,000 shares per second on iMessage), there’s an opportunity for Pinterest to have a presence in surfacing and enabling sharing of content within conversations in iMessage.
Goals
Social interactions help Pinterest grow while retaining core users. For the Pinterest iMessage extension, we will be defining success based on:
Increase of content being shared
Increase of users being authenticated (on the recipient side)
Increase of Pinterest usage amongst core user base*
*Due to the fact that these users aren’t deep linked into the full Pinterest app, we were aware of the possibility that it could potentially negatively affect WAU.
Competitive Analysis
While researching existing iMessage extensions, the most successful examples were the extensions that were stripped down versions of the original app focusing on one use case.
For example, Spotify and Youtube only have a search bar (no filters, sorting methods), and #images acts as a visual feed.
Analyzing Pinterest’s app
In order to strip down Pinterest’s app for the iMessage extension, I analyzed the iOS app’s UI elements while also gathering Pinterest users’ main use cases.
Use Cases
The sharing/messaging use cases fell into three buckets with varying levels of overlap. Our user’s intent is to have a quick entry point to access content without leaving their iMessage conversation.
Based on these three different use case buckets, I worked alongside my PM and Engineer to hone in on the use case we wanted to tackle/pursue, and agree on MVP scope and future vision.
Design Principles
Ideation
I ideated and wireframed different design solutions focusing on Search and Browse use cases. Solving for the retrieval use case was sidelined due to the added complexity of creating a more robust auth experience accounting for a user’s pre existing boards/pins on their profile.
Final design
The Search focused designs proved to be ineffective, due to the fact that:
Users would be required to take at least one extra tap to take action, adding more time and friction to an interaction that we’d like to keep quick and easy.
A search bar/search functionality can easily be incorporated into the Browse models.
The Feed first design keeps the integrity of Pinterest’s classic visual heavy grid, while staying lightweight on the user experience, visual design, and engineering side. Additionally, future iterations can seamlessly scale within it.
Sender experience
Recipient experience
Once a user taps the Pinterest iMessage extension, they can browse their curated Pinterest content on the home feed or search for a specific keyword.
Following design patterns from other extensions, once a pin is tapped, it gets placed in iMessage’s text input. A more detailed Pinterest closeup can be accessed through the pin’s overflow menu.
A recipient who has the Pinterest app installed (regardless of being logged in or not) will be deep linked to the recipe in a closeup view.
If the recipient does not have the Pinterest app installed, they will be redirected to the App Store to download Pinterest.
Future thinking
In the future, the Sharing & Collaboration team would like to explore a profile page in the extension, where users are able to quickly access and retrieve their boards and pins. This would allow users to quickly be able to retrieve a recipe or idea they saved to a board versus having to search for it.
Conclusion
This feature is expected to launch August 2020. Despite not being at the company to monitor metrics/continue to iterate on the designs, I had a lot of fun working on this project and I learned a lot— especially in regards to what it’s like to be on a Growth team at a social media company.
While I believe the Retrieve model is the most successful design, it’s important to remember and consider the business impact of being MVP focused, starting small, and being nimble.