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"Even if you haven't ever visited popular visual bookmarking site Pinterest, you might recognize its design elements \u2014 which have been popping up everywhere since the startup burst onto the mainstream scene in 2011.\nThe site doesn't use traditional web building blocks.\n\"It's almost like a window-shopping mode,\" says Khoi Vinh, the former design director for NYTimes.com. \n\"It puts the ball back in the user's court,\" muses Andrew Beck, a web designer at Blue Fountain Media. \n\"It flattens the information hierarchy,\" describes Jeff Croft, a web designer and co-founder of ebook lending site Lendle.\nPinterest puts web content into sticky-note sized blocks users can organize onto pinboards that fill the entire browser screen. The majority of each block is filled by a photo, and the ability to \"like,\" \"repin\" or comment at the bottom make it look like its own mini web page. \nThough the hot Palo Alto startup is staying mum about its user numbers, one study found it drives more traffic to websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. \nAs it has gained in popularity, so too has its unusual design.\nQuora launched a new feature in December that incorporates a topic \"boards.\" In January, social video startup Chill.com redesigned the site to contain \"bricks\" of videos shared by the people who you follow, complete with social activity from other Chill users. And several content visualization projects such as Scrolldit, which launched in December, took on the Pinterest block-by-block content feel. \n\n\n\n\nPinterest didn't invent the basic design structure, but it did help make it cool.\nMost designers cite a layout plugin called jQuery Masonry while describing the look of Pinterest's site. Launched in February of 2009 by designer David DeSandro, it makes it easy for web designers to create a vertical layout like that of Pinterest. \nIt also broke the system of organizing information online based on reverse chronology, as favored by Twitter and Facebook. Reverse chronology is a tired, overly-used system; as Vinh says, \"I almost thought it was the default way to organize information on the web.\"\nThough many sites experimented with the jQuery Masonry layout, it didn't immediately catch on with sites that were offering a service.\n\"The sites I saw before Pinterest that used this design were pretty much tech demos of how you could do this,\" Croft says.\nPinterest, as far as the designers Mashable spoke with could remember, was the first site to take the idea to mainstream success. It showed how the design could solve certain challenges eloquently and how the traditional reverse chronology layout could be broken without scaring users away. In fact, it was attracting them in invitation-only droves.\nConsequently, the design caught on. Croft says that five clients in the last six months have mentioned Pinterest when discussing what they want their website designs to look like. \n\"At a pure level, there's an advantage if you ave set of information that benefits from people accessing it in a non-linear fashion,\" Vinh says of the layout. \"For most people, they saw it on Pinterest and want to be almost as cool as Pinterest.\"\n\n\n\n\nA Quora \"board.\" \n\n\n\n\nChill.com after its December redesign.\nCheck Out More of Mashable's Coverage of Pinterest\n\nHow to Get a Pinterest Invite\nHow Pinterest Is Changing Website Design Forever\n7 Tips for Planning a Wedding on Pinterest\nPinterest Drives More Traffic Than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn Combined [STUDY] \n21 Must-Follow Pinterest Users\n\n\n\n15 of the Most Popular Pictures on Pinterest\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. Hands\nPicture by photographer Jorge Rimblas, posted via Edris Kim on Pinterest.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Homemade Photobooth\nPinterest via Gemma Ganni.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Bookshelf Wall\nPinterest via Krystyna Salvetta.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. Apple... Pie.\nPinterest via Brianna Bauen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5. Wise Words\nPinterest via cynk.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6. Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies\nPinterest via Joy Cho/OhJoy!.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7. Metallic Nails\nPinterest via FeeFee, RN.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8. Words on Love\nPinterest via Ashe.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9. Nature\nPinterest via Carolyn Van Lang.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10. Beautiful Hair\nPinterest via Kulson F. Dorego.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11. Walk-In Closet\nPinterest via Christine Martinez.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12. Drawing on Walls\nPinterest via Geninne D Zlatkis.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n13. Melting Snowman Cookie\nPinterest via Jennifer Lindsay.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14. Cozy Scarf\nPinterest via Alex B&amp;S.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n15. Bed Nook\nPinterest via Leah Dent.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/02/07/pinterest-web-design/>