
The Pinterest Layout Will Not Save You - jfornear
http://jfornear.co/the-pinterest-layout-will-not-save-you/
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anigbrowl
Some good points, but also some circular arguments. _Is MySpace's content
primarily visual? No._ It seems, rather, that Myspace is retooling itself to
appeal to viewers who do want to communicate visually. And a lot of younger
people do, as can be seen from the popularity of 4chan and its derivatives.
Myspace is also pitching itself as a destination for music artist promotion
and music sharing, and visuals are important to that.

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jfornear
I agree, it does seem like they are steering their users toward posting more
photos.

I guess I am skeptical that they can pull that off without an accompanying
bookmarklet, web upload flow, or mobile app.

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anigbrowl
You're right to be skeptical, I guess where we differ is that I'm not sure
those things are absolute must-haves to get things off the ground, especially
as Myspace is trying to reposition itself as a music/arts promo platform
rather than a one-size-fits all social platform (or so it seems to me based on
their PR).

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notlisted
It will not save you, but... it works very well for tablet surfing, which is a
must...

Mass market adoption of tablets is just around the corner. With a very large
number of affordable tablets on the market (Google/Amazon/B&N and the illusive
Mac 7"-er later this week) this xmas will surely cause a landslide in traffic
patterns.

Case in point: one of my clients (hospitality industry) has seen site traffic
go from 5% mobile to 20%+ in little under a year. The iPad alone is
responsible for 3/4 of that 20% these days. We're expecting 25-30% by the end
of Q1 of 2013 (worldwide traffic, sooner if we look at the US market alone).
Of interest perhaps, iPad:iPhone ratio now 4.7:1 (was the other way around a
year ago)

Don't mind the digg design on my tablets, though I'd be fine with a different
lay-out on the PC. Google+ does a great job of mobile vs tablet vs PC layout.

I absolutely _LOVE_ the MySpace design as shown in the demo video, though I
doubt it will be easy to fit all typical content into that framework (I see a
lot of pretty demo data, now let me see the ugly user posts).

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jfornear
I've found the Pulse news app to have the best layout for tablet. It's
balanced, symmetric, utilitarian, etc. and each row/news source scrolls
horizontally. If it had a jagged layout with larger images and only vertical
scrolling like Pinterest or the new Digg, it wouldn't be near as good.

Screenshot: [http://i1-handheld.softpedia-
static.com/images/software/scre...](http://i1-handheld.softpedia-
static.com/images/software/screens/Pulse-News-Reader_1.jpg)

~~~
notlisted
I agree, Pulse is nice. There are others too.

My favorite app that covers and combines (but does not enforce) the
utilitarian and visual options and on the iPad is the reddit client AlienBlue
(Jasmine for youtube by the same guy, is good tool).

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gojomo
To my eye the Pinterest masonry grid is a trick for creating 'false
excitement' around the content. In that way, it's like rapid edits or a shaky
camera in video.

This works for a while, in certain domains, for people in certain leisurely
modes of operation... but can also eventually lead to frustration and
distrust. ("Why is this page making it hard for me to do an thoughtful review
of what's new or important?")

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bluthru
No, a 2D layout (vs a linear layout) isn't new or incorrect. It has been
around forever and is best-suited for a non-hierarchical browsing of items.
The lack of hierarchy is a feature, not a bug.

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jere
Digg's redesign is especially bewildering. I double checked. On 1920x1200, I
see exactly 6 headlines. On reddit, I get 16 (with photos!).

Not only are the (mostly useless) images unnecessarily huge, but the layout is
fixed. Masonry, out of the box, uses the entire screen real estate.

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mey
Opened digg to check, in my default browser size (1146x614), the size it is
when I open a new screen. I can see 3 "stories"...

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zerostar07
These layouts work for social sites, where people want to feel that it's
crowded. For other sites, it just looks ... well, crowded.

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marknutter
At the risk of sounding sexist, I think Pinterest appeals to women precisely
because of the layout. Men tend to gravitate toward more utilitarian,
structured layout that allows them to systematically scan large amounts of
data one by one. Women tend to hunt and peck, floating around the page for
interesting content. Pinterest's layout drives me nuts but it's the first
website outside of Facebook that my wife has really gotten into.

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rada
I think that you are trying to attribute the differences between "browsing"
and "searching" to biological differences between genders. Every single porn
site that I've seen has layout very similar to Pinterest, so clearly, men
enjoy hunting and pecking, or "floating around the page for interesting
content" as much as women do.

On a related note, I sincerely hope you are not in a position where you
interview women for positions that require systematic thinking (a.k.a.
"jobs"). Personally, I'd hate to be on the other side of the table if that
were the case.

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jeffchuber
I would agree that Pinterest's layout works terribly for any that is text
based.

The issue for a lot of websites is getting users to be intrigued enough to
spend 10 seconds checking out the site. Making the site familiar or tying it
to a sexy trend can maximize short term traction but at the expense of long
term traction (unoptimized UI). I don't think this is right or wrong, each
company has to make their own decision.

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jeffreynoldz
Pinterest wasn't the first use of masonry, and any use of masonry isn't
necessarily aping pinterest. Digg doesn't look or feel much like pinterest,
neither does the verge (which seems to be quite successful). If anything, they
appear to mimic traditional newspaper layouts. Digg is unsuccessful because
its content is mediocre - not because it's using a layout that's un-conducive
to displaying news.

I would argue that the assertion that news sites should be a dense list of
headlines is false, and that Reddit and Hacker News thrive DESPITE their
layouts rather than because of them. Making elements on a page visually
distinct and easy to scan is not a bad thing.

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MisterBastahrd
Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool. You scan it quickly and find things
that interest you. It works because the images are topical. An album cover is
usually tangentially topical. A news photograph may be topical, but you have
to quantify what you're looking at by reading the description.

That's the beauty of Pinterest: its photos ARE its descriptions.

A news site, by comparison, is damned hard to navigate when the articles are
not sequential. It's the difference between browsing an old Sears Wishbook and
reading a magazine.

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nsns
Pinterest does influence a lot of new and current design, but I'm not sure
it's necessarily bad. There's something about the design that says
"information is endless, we'll never get through it all", which I feel is a
concept that comes to terms with online reality better than previous concepts
that were imitations of paper print, which you would read from start to
finish. Also there's a strange correlation with the proposed Metro aesthetic.

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mcgwiz
Pinterest works for the average Pinterest user primarily because it fits into
the metaphor of the site (items pinned on a bulletin board) and therefore
enhances the information architecture of the site. This acts as a functional
multiplier across the entire site. The fact that the content is visual falls
out from this but is not necessary; many pinned items are actually primarily
textual. Sign up flow, email notifications, etc are tertiary.

Generally, a non-traditional layout (where traditional is flat list or tree-
based) should be chosen if it is compatible with or can even reinforce the
information architecture. E.g. if you're site is based on the idea of building
a house out of bricks, a 'mason' layout would work :)

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richforrester
"The Pinterest Layout" is just another tool in the toolbox of a good designer,
and many designs already features similar patterns way before people started
pinning. It's only natural that successful sites get copied, but that doesn't
make it a good thing.

SBNation.com recently rebranded all it's fan-sites (such as Celticsblog.com,
Silverscreenandroll.com and many dozens of other American sports-related
sites) and went for a full-on visual approach.

However pretty it looks, for a bunch of sportsblogs it seems like the wrong
approach. Content got scattered and the mobile (responsive) design makes
loading it (even on wi-fi) a pain in the rear.

Yeah, this one is a trend that, imo, can go f itself.

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dkrich
The MySpace layout is what happens when too many people are working on a
product. It isn't being built around a job to be done, it seems that they are
simply redesigning shit for the sake of redesigning shit.

Any product should ultimately be built, optimized, and if necessary,
redesigned to best perform a job. Too many sites are just piggy-backing on
other site's success because they simply don't know what else to do. In their
mind I'm sure it seems like a great idea, but then nobody uses it. It's
because the changes are not being made out of necessity. How do more people
not see this?

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ebf
I'm not sure how you can judge the new MySpace when it isn't even out yet. For
all we know, it could be a great example of a UI/UX.

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theone
One of the worst implementation of Pinterest Layout which I have seen is on :
[http://www.yebhi.com/online-shopping/mobiles-and-
tablets.htm...](http://www.yebhi.com/online-shopping/mobiles-and-tablets.html)

This is one of the largest online shopping site in India.

Its really difficult to locate a particular product, compare there price etc.

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mlchild
A similar issue is the preponderance of hyper-image-oriented mobile app
designs at the expense of content and usability. Examples that come to mind
for me are Urbanspoon, Flipboard (perhaps a controversial view), the new
Chef's Feed app—if I can't figure out how to navigate because I'm blitzed by
so many photos, something's wrong.

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mcgwiz
The whole point of Flipboard is to add a magazine layout to existing content.
As important is the fact that Flipboard allows you to choose what content
sources to apply their layout to. In this regard, it leaves the whole issue in
the hands of the user, who is always right :)

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mlchild
I'm with you conceptually, but I don't end up using Flipboard much if at
all—and I understand I'm generalizing from a minute sample, so bear with
me—because I don't find it to be the best way to read anything. For news/text,
Instapaper is king, and for Facebook and Twitter, I find that the Facebook app
and Tweetbot win out.

Is there a type of content that you find Flipboard excels at presenting,
particularly on mobile? Or that "the Pinterest layout" does, besides
Pinterest?

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mcgwiz
Well, I personally agree with you, but my significant other likes to view
social network content through it in certain circumstances, particularly at
the end of the day after getting in bed. But that's the saving grace of
Flipboard; it's there if you want it, but it's not forced onto anything.

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jeswin
I am using a pinterest-inspired layout for an upcoming project (Collaborative
poetry). Planning to come out with a beta this week, and apply for YC this
month.

1\. Can HNers give me some feedback on aesthetics (or other)?
<http://i.imgur.com/8BCE3.jpg>

2\. My domain is www.poe3.com. Is that an interesting hack?

Thanks in advance.

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gojomo
A UX risk is that the prominent photos, as in your mockup, draw the eye and
activate a visual mode of thought with specific concrete images. Appreciation
of poetry also tries to trigger visual thoughts, but through words and
imagination/ambiguity instead. So the concrete visuals _might_ interfere with
literary appreciation. (Consider also: often the most-appreciated text appears
bare on a plain page.)

This is just a hunch, and you could perhaps test an imagery-heavy look against
a spartan text-centric presentation, and see which draws more of the exact
kinds of reading/engagement you want.

I read the domain first as "po"-"three", and thought of Edgar Allen Poe, but
with a little thought can see it as "po"-"eh"-"three". As that, it is
effectively short and memorable... I think it could work well.

Good luck!

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jeswin
Thanks for the excellent feedback. Planning to try a few layouts during the
beta phase like you suggested.

Our assumption is that eventually most of our users will be using this via
mobile apps (which is how we hope to make money).

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intellegacy
I don't think you're going to get people to pronounce your site "poe-uh-
three". If that was your intention you might want to rethink the name. I read
the name as "poh-three", which frankly meant nothing to me.

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jeswin
Thanks. I get mixed opinions with the domain name. Some like it, some not so
much. The initial idea was along "Poe3, Poetry by 3 people".

One reason I like it is that it is very short. Even with random alphabets,
four letter domains are hard to come by. eg: www.poe3.com/123 (123rd poem),
www.poe3.com/jeswin (my profile).

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intellegacy
What is the philosophy behind the idea of 3 people writing a poem? To my
knowledge no famous poem has ever been written that way.

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jeswin
This is mostly targeted at casual users. More than making great poems, it
might be about the social, collaborative aspect of writing something. Actually
various forms of poetry (haiku, free verse..) aren't the only options
available, I also added "Six word story" as an option.

Collaborative Poetry: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_poetry>

Collaborative Haikoo: <http://haikoo.org/explore/>

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nahname
A thought, what if pinterest became popular because of it's content, despite
it being presented poorly?

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tantalor
Who said it was presented poorly?

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nahname
Many users of pinterest that I have talked to have said they find the
interface confusing. Specifically the content layout. The very feature these
other sites are now ripping for their own.

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cracktojack
But in this kind of layout, how can one see footer of the website. the
infinite scrolling is irritating sometimes...

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cristianpascu
<http://intotweets.com> is another product that is making use of the pinterest
layout. It displays tweets with in place content, such as video, images, or
website previews.

I'm still undecided if it's a good thing or not as to the experience it
provides.

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joeblau
Wow, this past weekend I was looking for a library that did something like
this and then here you come showing me right where to find it!

Thanks J

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tantalor
<http://lmgtfy.com/?q=javascript+pinterest+layout>

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bedspax
only the title, deserves a up

