Pinterest

The masonry grid of variable-height tiles that pioneered staggered infinite scroll.

Content & Discovery

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Pinterest is the canonical masonry layout: a grid of variable-height image tiles that stagger to remove gaps, scrolling forever. It made discovery feel like rummaging rather than searching. Tapping a Pin opens it without leaving the flow, and closely related images cascade directly beneath, turning every item into a fresh jumping-off point. Saving to boards is the core verb, and the act of organizing what you find is itself the product. Visual search lets you crop part of an image and find lookalikes, which suits a catalog of objects over text. The interface leans almost entirely on the picture, so weak or text-heavy Pins read poorly in the grid, and the relentless related-content cascade can pull you sideways far from your original intent.

A new Pinterest account starts by choosing topics of interest, which seeds the home feed before the person has saved anything. The feed then adapts to what is saved and clicked, and the search bar suggests guided refinements as coloured chips under a query, such as styles or occasions, so a broad search narrows without typing. Search is built for people who know the look they want but not the words for it.

Boards are organised with more structure than their simple surface suggests. A board can hold sections, can be shared with collaborators, and can be kept secret, and the board page offers ideas based on what is already on it. Pinterest also lets people create Pins and Idea Pins with multiple images, text and links, so the product serves both people collecting ideas and creators publishing them.

Shopping features increasingly share the grid. Product Pins show a price and a link to the retailer, and some images carry tags on the items they show, so a living-room photo can lead to the lamp in it. The result is a feed where inspiration and advertising look alike, which helps retailers reach people early in a decision but also means a viewer has to read the small labels to tell an idea from an advert.