context

Making Pins accessible across languages

The majority of Pinterest’s users lived outside the U.S., but the language of a Pin didn’t always match the language of the person discovering it. For content like recipes and shoppable products, this created a barrier to understanding, saving, and engaging with Pins.

the problem

Users were hiding Pins they couldn't understand

When the language of a Pin didn't match the language of the user, they were more likely to hide the Pin instead of engaging with it.

🎯 Growth Opportunity: Reduce language-driven negative feedback and recover engagement with Rich Pins.

impact

Helping users move from discovery to engagement

I designed the iOS experience for an ML-powered translation feature across Rich Pins, helping make content more accessible across languages and supporting Pinterest’s broader engagement and monetization goals.

project kickoff

Aligning on the direction for translation

Translation was being explored in beta within comments, so I met with the Product Manager and the designer leading that work to understand the direction, what had been tested, and which interaction patterns could carry over to Rich Pins.

Unlike an individual comment, Pin content could span multiple sections and vary across recipes, products, and articles. The challenge was determining where translation should appear and making its scope clear to users.

exploration & key decisions

Defining where translation appears and what it affects

Option #1: One Pin-level entry point

I first explored a single translation entry point near the top of the Pin, with a dynamic label that adapted to the type of content. Previous research showed that engagement decreased the further users had to scroll, so surfacing the action early in the Pin was important.

However, the label could suggest that the entire Pin, including comments, would translate when comments were actually translated separately.

Option 2: Contextual entry points

'Show translation' appeared within each section that could be translated. This kept the action close to the content it would translate, making its scope clearer.

Tradeoff: Multiple entry points could imply that users needed to translate each section individually. We addressed this by carrying the translated state across the Pin, so once translation was initiated, users didn't need to repeat the action as they scrolled.

shipped solution

A consistent translation experience across the Pin

Translation carried across the Pin as users moved between sections, while each section retained its own entry point.

outcomes

Shipped to 400M+ MAU across priority international markets

By making high-intent content easier to understand across languages, the work supported Pinterest’s broader effort to grow engagement and monetization in international markets.

Note: The experience I designed shipped after my contract ended, so I don't have access to post-launch metrics for changes in Pin hiding and engagment.