PINTEREST User Research CASE STUDY: BLACK WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE
An analytic case study highlighting the Black woman’s experience using the popular app/website Pinterest. Exploring a problem when using Pinterest and it’s current diverse UX/UI features.
Responsibilities: Personal Project, User Research
Tools used: , UX analysis, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Duration: 2weeks
Context
It all starts with Twitter
I found whenever I am mindlessly scrolling occasionally a tweet, retweeted or liked will appear in my feed with annoyance for various search operated platforms such as Google or Pinterest. Often stating unless typing “Black” and the end of the search images of Black or POC will not be presented into the search. This spurred me to look into this further on the popular app for moodboards and inspiration, Pinterest
Problem Statement
Pinterest needs a way to organise their algorithm to show images with predominately Black people, when searching for Black hairstyles because Black users shouldn’t have to specify race to filter the images they want to see.
Hypothesis
I believe that by reviewing the current algorithm for users looking for inspiration for predominately Black hairstyles, Pinterest will see higher engagement on their platform.
We will know this to be true when we see more engagement without the use of filters and tags such as ‘black girl’ added to the search.
Pinterest is a great app and website, where users can find inspiration and essentially create digital mood-boards from their findings. As an avid user of Pinterest, I enjoy pinning and creating boards to gain inspiration for a variety of projects I have in mind to engage in.
However, from my experience the ‘white-washing’ of the search results is evident. This is even presented in searches that are specific to Black culture.
As a personal project I have conducted a case study, presenting the frustrations of the Black woman’s user experience when using Pinterest to create a mood-board for a hairstyle that is typically worn in the Black community: Braids.
Existing Tweets
Inspiration for navigating this topic further. These tweets are specific to Pinterest that many have tweeted their frustrations on.
Inspired by Braids
These tweets aren’t new to me personally as I have seen similar results when using Search Engines. As a Black woman it is a flaw that I have accepted living in a society where the ‘norm’ may not be myself. However, something that bothered me was why? Especially as I’ve had this experienced when searching for things that are culturally specific for example, the last time I was searching for inspiration for the hairstyle Braids.
SEARCHING FOR BRAIDS
Here shows the process of searching the term ‘Braids’ in Pinterest and what the results show.
From this search, two of the hairstyles presented in this initial scroll, may be specific to Black women. However, none of the images show ‘braids’.
Many of the images that are displayed for the ‘braids’ search results are actually termed as ‘braided hairstyles’.
Here is a video presenting the search results for the term ‘braids’ on Pinterest
Next I utilised a UX feature that has been introduced to Pinterest: Skin Tone Filter
The Keyword Search Prompts, help users to specify what they want their search to show.
Once keyword prompts regarding race are selected the images from the search NOW match the broad terminology of ‘braids’
Outcome
It is clear that the only way for the search of a hairstyle that is predominately used by the Black and POC community to be successful on Pinterest is by using their prebuilt features such as the Skin Tone filter or Keyword prompts.
It is common for Black women’s User Experience, to add ‘Black women’ / ‘Black girl’ to specify search results. It is clear Pinterest has recognized this and added the Keyword Prompts to further enhance the user’s experience.
However, the white-washing of the search for a hairstyle that is predominantly worn in the Black community, diminishes the user experience for Black users. This is due to the journey it takes to achieve optimal search results being considerably lengthened. It is clear that White women using Pinterest are allowed to be vague with their searches and achieve results they are most likely looking for. Unfortunately, Black users must specify Race in order for their search to be successful.
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