Hacker News Reader

At the risk of sounding sexist, I think Pinterest appeals to women precisely because of the layout. Men tend to gravitate toward more utilitarian, structured layout that allows them to systematically scan large amounts of data one by one. Women tend to hunt and peck, floating around the page for interesting content. Pinterest's layout drives me nuts but it's the first website outside of Facebook that my wife has really gotten into.

View on HN

I think that you are trying to attribute the differences between "browsing" and "searching" to biological differences between genders. Every single porn site that I've seen has layout very similar to Pinterest, so clearly, men enjoy hunting and pecking, or "floating around the page for interesting content" as much as women do.

On a related note, I sincerely hope you are not in a position where you interview women for positions that require systematic thinking (a.k.a. "jobs"). Personally, I'd hate to be on the other side of the table if that were the case.

I somewhat agree but would de-emphasize the "sexist" part (although it is somewhat true), and emphasize that the nature of the site. If the site is meant to provide information quickly, or the users look for information quickly, a Pinterest-style layout is bad. If a site of this style has a Pinterest-style layout, it should give all tiles a constant height so scanning the information is easier. On the other hand, if the site is meant for browsing, or to be visually inspiring, the Pinterest-style layout works very well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com