After Pinterest’s SXSW announcement of feature and interface changes, the emerging social media has made good on CEO Ben Silbermann’s promise earlier this week to redesign profiles the pinboard social network has delivered with a new profile page and discovery features on the site.
Moving forward, the recent makeover had been expected for some time, with a number of media outlets including CNN speculating over possible changes — and the site has now rolled a more streamlined look. The new pages boast a cleaner, more streamlined design that renders Facebook’s Timeline.
In a brief explanation, Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, suggested at today’s changes during a recent appearance at SXSW. He promised “lots of exciting things,” including an improved profile that would be “more beautiful, a snapshot of who you are.”
For comparison’s sake, here is top user Jane Wang’s old Pinterest profile page:
And here is her new one:
Image Source: (Mashable)
Elements previously situated on the side of the page have been moved to the top to give photos and content greater prominence. Pretty much identical to Facebook’s Timeline, you will now notice a top bar comprised of your public information and profile photo, accompanied by a notification bar of re-pins to the right. Below positioned a retooled navigation bar comprised of easily navigable tabs to your board, individual pins, likes and activity. While little within the pinboard has changed, Pinterest has enabled users to ever slightly customize their pinboards with the ability to rearrange their boards.
Another nifty addition in the above screenshot is, there are four centered columns vs. the former five, although if you stretch your browser’s window, you can accommodate more. The tab on the left detailing who is following you and who has recently repinned your photos and videos is gone. Instead, a horizontal bar on the top of the page details that information. You’ll also note that there’s more blank space on the side and top, giving the page a less cluttered look. In another change, the default for the profile page shows recent pins, rather than Pinboards.
“I’m so excited about it,” he said. “We wanted to make it more beautiful … to make your profile different in kind than the profile you have on Facebook.”
Silbermann also discussed the old design: “We struggled over that grid,” he said. “There were literally dozens of that which were fully coded. We felt like, if your collections did not look awesome, if they were not beautiful, why would anyone spend the time to build them?”
The recently redesigned profile pages come after the site accomplished a pretty significant milestone in January – reached 11.7 million unique visitors. That means it passed the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in the country.
Interestingly, now having discovered its newfound potential to compete with larger social networking platforms, including Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, Pinterest is setting out to become an essential go-to platform for social media users today.
Silbermann also says that an iPad app and API are in the works for a release in the near future.