If you use LinkedIn on even a semi-regular basis then you’ll be aware just how dull it is to look at and how difficult it can be to navigate to find what you want. Well, LinkedIn is also aware of this and are in the process of testing a new design with a handful of users that is designed to improve your experience on the site and make it more sticky.
So what’s new? TechCrunch have a pretty decent round up which they’ve pulled in from various tipsters and online conversations involving those who have seen the new layout. Here’s the ‘best bits’.
People Who Have Viewed Your Profile
This has had a bit of an upgrade and looks a lot better too. The company has included “Message” and “Connect” buttons next to each name, so if someone has viewed your profile you’re already connected to you can message them directly or you’re not already connected, you can request to connect. All from that location. Handy.
LinkedIn Today
LinkedIn’s newsfeed, LinkedIn today remains but now features bigger pictures to encourage you to read the various stories. As TechCrunch points out, it’s hardly Facebook Timeline but it does make the page a lot more attractive and as these are the only pictures that appear on the site (bar your profile pic) they did need to do something to brighten things up. LinkedIn has long been a sterile environment, so this should help with that stickiness issue.
Other Tweaks
In addition to the two main changes above, the menu bar has been redesigned, giving LinkedIn a much darker look and it now stays at the top of the screen as you scroll, making navigation much easier and giving you access to all you need no matter where you are on the page. Nice touch, if not ground breaking. In fact, that’s LinkedIn playing catch up.
Finally, now that Twitter has prevented updates from posting directly to LinkedIn there’s a huge gaping hole in terms of content – relevant or not – being added to the site. You now have to manually update your status on LinkedIn, which is just one more task for people to do. I agree with TechCrunch in thinking that most people just won’t bother…LinkedIn need to get people to stay on the site to encourage these updates so the redesign is not really a surprise.
You can expect to see this roll out fairly soon, no doubt with even more tweaks. If nothing else, it’ll freshen up your LinkedIn homepage. Which is nice. Now if only they’d focus on sorting out the spam I get from recruiters – that ruins the LinkedIn experience more than anything else.
Thank you for reading LinkedIn Getting A (Much Needed) Facelift, originally published on TechDrink. Ben Greenwood is the founder and editor of TechDrink. You can follow him on Twitter and Google+. You can also follow TechDrink on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
