Role
Product Design Consultant
Duration
September - December 2023
Disciplines
Product Design, User Research, User Interface, Interaction Design, Mobile Design
Team
Sarah Suen, Michid Byambajav, Angie Nguyen, Heli Balsara
Pinterest’s mission is to “bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love”, a platform loved not only by designers (like myself) but for over 482 million users monthly worldwide. However, not many see Pinterest as a business hub.
With that, the Product Team at Pinterest asked us, Berkeley Innovation, to increase awareness to their business side. This sounds pretty daunting and big in scope, so the team tasked us with honing in on a not fully developed “Quick Promote” feature that aims for SMBs (small-medium business) to effectively promote their business.
JUST LIKE THE NAME, “QUICK PROMOTE” ARE BROKEN DOWN TO THREE SIMPLE STEPS
WHY ARE WE FOCUSING ON SMALL-MEDIUM BUSINESSES? (SMBs)
To identify overarching trends regarding the challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses, we conducted preliminary research. This research aimed to provide insights into why it is crucial for SMBs to utilize easy-to-use features such as the "Quick Promote" feature.
BUSINESS TYPE
WHO’S RUNNING SMALL-MEDIUM BUSINESS MARKETING?
To power the inspiration found on Pinterest, merchants large and small come to build their presence, uploading their catalog and promoting their products. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) often juggle multiple responsibilities. It can be overwhelming creating a campaign for the first time.
SO ULTIMATELY, WE WANT TO ASK THE QUESTION OF....
How Might We...
Design an approachable and dedicated ad creation flow to support new merchants promoting their products on Pinterest for the first time?
#ExclusiveReveal #Recommendations
CORE CHANGES TO THE 3-STEP AD CREATION PROCESS
To enhance the user flow and usability of the current three-step process, we refined each stage to specifically address users' pain points and frustrations at every step of the process.
#1 EASY NAVIGATION TO PRE-EXISTING PINS
Selecting a pin to promote is the first step in promoting a pin. The existing user flow for promoting a pin is unclear and confusing, resulting in user frustration and a diminished overall experience. To establish a more intuitive user flow for pin selection, we introduced a side pop-up organized by boards and most recent.
This design eliminates endless scrolling by consolidating everything into one space, enabling users to easily promote their most recently uploaded pin creating a more efficient and smoother process.
#2 SPECIFIED TARGETED AUDIENCE
Understanding the target audience for the promoted pin is a key factor in a successful ad. The current method for selecting an audience on Pinterest involves embedded lists of interests that delve into specific details (e.g., beauty -> makeup -> lipstick). This results in users mindlessly selecting what appears to be an endless array of options, making it challenging to keep track.
To address this, we introduced a box above to monitor all selected items enabling users to be more intentional in their choices.
#3 UI IMPROVEMENT + DELIGHTFUL DESIGNS
"It takes 1/10th of a second to form a first impression of a website." Pinterest's ad creation process is still in its early stages, implying that many users utilizing the three-step ad creation are first-timers or new to the advertising space. By enhancing the UI of the ad creation to be more vibrant, we aim not only to enhance first impressions but also to alleviate the intimidation associated with creating an ad for the first time.
How did we get here? Let’s revisit all the steps!
DIVING DEEPER TO THE STRUGGLES OF SMBs
The biggest challenge we faced during this research stage was finding the specific audience (funnily enough, in a smaller scale, this is a similar process SMBs have to go through to find their specific audience to promote their business). Although the number of respondents were not as much as we would’ve wanted, we still gained valuable information such as why Pinterest were not there first choice in promoting their products/businesses.
USER SURVEYS
User surveys serve as our starting point! After secondary research, we know that providing SMBs with an easy-to-use ad platform is a huge opportunity to be discover. With that we asked questions to help us understand SMBs....
Ad Creation Challenges
- Lack of knowledge, budgeting, advertising
- Time spent
- Creative knowledge
- Determining effectiveness
Goals in Ad Creation
- Increase in sales, revenue, and engagement are the top goals in ad creation
- Cost effectiveness & targeted audience are the top two factors influencing users preferred platform
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRIES + USER INTERVIEWS
With a better understanding of SMBs' challenges and goals in the ad creation world, we interviewed six individuals who participated in our survey to navigate through Pinterest's current three-step ad creation process, starting from uploading a pin to completing the promotion of the pin. We requested them to articulate their thoughts and experiences aloud as they progressed through each step. Finally, we concluded with some closing questions.
These individuals range from small to medium business owners from various fields (i.e food, fashion, services) with diverse experience from beginner to advance. These were both conducted in person and on zoom.
Guidance & Experience
Users have limited knowledge in using Pinterest in an ad creation setting and prefer a guided experience.
Targeting Users
Having a specific and personalized targeting allow users to benefit with their resources. 4/6 expressed confusion in choosing the specific audience.
Confusing UI
New users of Pinterest find it hard to navigate to the “Promote Pin” feature as well as how to upload a pin to promote leading many feeling frustrated/confused.
We then gathered up all the research, and affinity diagram in order to find the most common clusters to base our insights around.
KEY INSIGHTS GAINED....
SMBs often face challenges due to their limited experience regarding marketing.
Users experience confusion distinguishing between creating and promoting a pin.
SMBs highly value specific targeting options to personalize their advertising.
Certain features aren’t highlighted leading to difficulty and confusion while making an ad.
Competitor Analysis
WHAT ARE SOME FEATURES OTHER AD CREATION PLATFORMS ARE DOING WELL?
Our research reveals that 50% of users prefer Instagram as their primary ad creation platform, followed by 25% on Facebook and 20% on Google. Thus we ask: "What specific aspects of these platforms contribute to enhancing the ad creation process for SMBs and how?". We navigated through each platform from initiating an ad to filling in details and finally publishing it. Our focus centered on key features crucial to addressing the specific needs of SMBs.
We then score each category and ranked which platform is best for each needs.
Instagram overall is the most intuitive to use without much knowledge in the ad creation world.
Facebook and Google Ads offer advanced features that differ from those on other existing platforms. For example, Google Ads provides a 'Bid Strategy,' allowing you to choose between manual or automated bidding based on your campaign objectives.
All pricing across all platforms is subject to personal budgets. A special mention goes to Google Ads for offering an 800% profit in the ad creation process, where every $1 spent results in users gaining $8 in profit.
TikTok is the only platform among the six that offers 1-1 consulting with an ad creation specialist. This personal and unique experience is provided to users.
In terms of ease of use, Instagram and Pinterest have the most straightforward processes, avoiding overwhelming users with lengthy procedures or business jargon.
Facebook targets the largest demographic, ensuring the highest success in the ad creation process for small to medium-sized businesses. This is attributed to its long-term credibility not only as a platform but also as a company
FINAL RANKINGS
Findings from competitive analysis suggest that...
PINTEREST VS OTHER PLATFORMS
Ad creation platforms such as Facebook and Google Ads, which emphasize careful attention to budgeting and audience selection, they cater to more marketing veterans with a deeper understanding of marketing techniques. Because of this, these platforms incorporate multiple pages without various steps, making the process of ad creation more optimal, but time-consuming.
Pinterest is unique in the way it prioritizes ease of use and efficiency, enabling users to promote one pin at a time. Due to this, the 3-step ad creation process stands out by being condensed onto a single page, reducing overwhelmness for first-time users. We can leverage its simplicity as a means for SMBs to get their foot in the door when entering the ad creation world.
PERSONAS
Concluding all our research, we have developed two personas representing creators who would utilize the 3-step creation process. The difference between the two are their advertising experience but they share the similarity of using Pinterst for the first time.
JOURNEY MAP - COMPARE & CONTRAST
We then crafted a journey map to compare and contrast the experiences of a newcomer and a veteran when using Pinterest's 3-step ad creation for the first time. This enables us to identify gaps between the two in the process of creating an ad.
The initial steps, from opening a Pinterest account to navigating to the 3-step ad creation process, are similar for both personas. However, the quality of experience begins to diverge when it comes to filling out the logistics of the ad, such as budgets, targeted audience, and understanding the significance of these numbers. We then synthesized these gaps and overall struggles faced by SMBs in promoting an ad, resulting in the identification of main themes/clusters to focus on as we move on to ideation.
CORE EXPERIENCE GOALS/MUST-HAVES
TARGETING
Provide interface that assists users in selecting their target audience more intentionally. Additionally, provide inspiration and guidance through suggestions from similar ads."
GUIDANCE
Highlight key resources for businesses, offering insights into how ads work. Also, provide clear steps after promoting an ad to boost business knowledge for future success.
PIN UPLOAD FLOW
Establish a clear flow for selecting a pin to upload, ensuring it is intuitive and familiar to users. This approach aims to reduce frustration, enhancing overall ease of use and efficiency.
UI IMPROVEMENTS
Enhance the overall feel of the interface to reduce the intimidation associated with starting an ad for the first time. Include inspiring words of encouragement to provide an extra boost of courage.
FINAL DESIGNS
Quick Promote (2.0)
To enhance the user flow and usability of the current three-step process, we refined each stage to specifically address users' pain points and frustrations at every step of the process hitting the goals of each core experiences stated above (targeting, guidance, pin uploading flow, and overall UI improvements)
Let’s check out the before and after of each design!
currently
Users are lead to another page in order to upload a pin, convoluting the process.
new designs
Introducing a side pop-up organized by boards and most recent eliminating endless scrolling.
currently
Users scroll through an endless lists of embedded lists without knowing what they are choosing.
new designs
Integrating a “selected-box” for users to keep track of the interests they are picking - allowing users to be intentional in the audience they are choosing in order to optimize the promoted ad.
currently
The only way to get guidance on the quick promote page is through the icons on the left with vague explainations.
new designs
Upon analyzing the uploaded pin, popular and similar promoted pins will appear at the bottom, offering guidance on how to complete ad details based on the success metrics of others."
currently
The current 3-step ad creation is dull, giving users a dull experience and furthermore decrease their motivation.
new designs
Combine steps into distinct cards, highlighting each when selected. Ensure prominent CTAs like 'Promote' and 'Switch to advanced ad creation' stand out with brighter colors."
A confirmation page pops up after a user promotes their pin for the first time. This adds a touch of delight, providing additional resources to guide new users on the next steps.
Promoting another pin is also a choice if users want to do another one!
BRINGING THE FEASIBILITY AND JOY TO PROMOTING
To enhance the user flow and usability of the current three-step process, we refined each stage to specifically address users' pain points and frustrations at every step of the process while keeping the two main themes: ease of use and delightful designs. After all, many of these SMBs are already juggling many hats, the last thing we want to do is add stress to their advertisement on Pinterest. It should be easy, quick, while providing additional resources for future growth .
Let's Chat!