My dashboardSign in

Social media · Visual discovery

Pinterest-style app

Illustrative system design for a visual discovery app like Pinterest: 5 topics to read, from requirements to deep dives.

Endless feeds someone else is writing to while you read.

Illustrative design, not Pinterest’s actual implementation. Arrowbox is not affiliated with Pinterest’s owner. Disclaimer

Start with Masonry feed Sign in to start readingUpdated 2 Oct 2026

Discovery

  • Masonry home feedIntermediate · 47 min read · Sign in to read

    Variable-height pins in balanced columns, placed from known ratios, paged without reflow.

  • Pin closeup and more like thisAdvanced · 47 min read · Sign in to read

    Open a pin over the feed instantly, load full detail and related pins, and come back to the same spot.

  • Search with autocompleteIntermediate · 44 min read · Sign in to read

    Recents on focus, debounced and cached suggestions with stale answers dropped, a keyboard combobox and a shareable results URL.

  • Visual searchAdvanced · 47 min read · Sign in to read

    Draw a box on a pin's image to find similar ideas: pointer and keyboard crop, cancellable queries.

Save and create

  • Boards and pinsIntermediate · 47 min read · Sign in to read

    One-tap save with Undo on every view, a filterable board picker, and saves that wait out a lost connection.