Howells.

After I tweeted about how impressed I was with the UI/UX of the Pinterest registration, Chris Shiflett tweeted this reply:

It’s sometimes hard to tell whether polish yielded success, or whether success yielded investment which funded polish.

It’s a very good question.

When I first registered for Pinterest, I remember having a bit of a difficult time. And actually, when I used the service I wasn’t too impressed (I don’t remember the reason why, if I’m honest). But re-visiting the service (losing my howells username in the process: bugger) I was impressed with how much work they have clearly done to the interface. It’s not necessarily to my taste but it’s very refined.

Clearly their VC investment led to their own investment in design and UX, but I don’t feel that was the single, secret sauce that helped them achieve astronomic growth. At its heart is a solid product that has organically occupied an unusual niche. And while I am the biggest advocate of great design and UX, nothing beats getting fundamentals right.