Blog . Pinterest
09/20/16 | Posted by LeAnn Troutner | Posted in Digital Creativity
Pinterest is a site about finding images or pins (term to mean a post and everything related to a certain image) and saving them in personalized boards (group of pins the user gets to put together) created by the person who owns the profile. Without being a member you can just find images and copy them for your purpose but being a member allows you to save the images to go back to later. Pinterest is free to join. As well as images, Pinterest allows you to shop, find recipes and contact others who liked or pinned the same items you did. When starting at Pinterest they give you a few options to choose from to get you started but there are so many more, plus you can like a person and individual peoples’ folders.
I have had a Pinterest account for a few years but it was just for fun until last year when I figured a way for it to work with my schooling. While in my Freshman Design Elective course we were strongly encouraged to look through Pinterest for images to inspire and refer to while creating specific projects. The first project was creating a personal brand for myself and this seemed to be the easiest way to start as I looked for images that I liked and felt represented who I was. After this we were assigned to create a food truck. We began by getting the idea of what food and who were the target customers. Then we went to Pinterest to find images to refer to for the project.
When looking on Pinterest there are so many ways to narrow down a search as well as there are similar searches given that the user can go to. As well as keeping up with the user’s own profile and folders they come up with. One thing I have not tried myself that I know the user can do is add a ‘pin’ (term used to mean a post or idea) of their own for the world to see. Just as anyone can find anything or anyone else’s pins anyone anywhere can see anything the user likes or saves. Pinterest is personalized to each individual as the site notifies the user when someone likes or saves their pin as well as if someone starts following you. The site will start looking for pins and boards that relate to what the user has already and send out recommendations as to what the user might like to save or pin.
Pinterest is constantly trying to change itself for the users. Since I have been on Pinterest I have learned we can send pins to others as well as message with them on the site. The user can hide boards from the public’s view, this is called secret boards. The user can follow whomever they want, even if you live miles apart and don’t really know one another. As well the user can share boards with others, this allows the user as well as whomever they shared the board with to be able to add pins to the board. Pinterest is a website but also has an app to work from on mobile devices. Just remember your username and password.