LinkedIn Case Study
Design Innovation Illinois
Timeline
Sept. 2022 - Dec. 2022
Role
UX UI Designer
Team
Priya, Kalyn, Zainab, Pub
Learning Outcomes
UX Research, Prototyping,
& Usability Testing
LinkedIn is the world's first and largest professional online networking site. With 875 million users worldwide, users find it challenging to create meaningful connections along with being able to actively use the platform for their professional growth.
In this redesign, our team worked together on giving users autonomy to connect in a more natural and familiar way.
The Problem
LinkedIn has a gap is replicating authentic, in-person relationships in an online space.
Our Solution
Give professionals the autonomy to connect in a way that feels natural to them.
LinkedIn has a gap is replicating authentic, in-person relationships in an online space.
Preliminary Research
User Interviews
In total, we interviewed...
10 college students
5 recent graduates
5 mid-senior level employees
“As a college student, you get too stressed out about what other people are doing.”
Here’s what we learned:
"I wish LinkedIn let us curate our feed and base our experience off of that."
From our research, we found that each professional uses LinkedIn for a different reason.
However, college student and recent graduates usually focus more on networking and growing their professional network while mid-senior level employees, who may be already stable in their professional career look more towards keeping up with the news and updates on their connections.
Competitor Analysis
These platforms had features similar to what LinkedIn had, but the real difference was how these platforms achieved and enabled professionals on a higher level.
While very different from LinkedIn, these also platforms curated to their users' needs when it comes to navigation and presented content.
User Personas & Journeys
Since Sahil's main pain points come from challenges in network growth, we found opportunities for remedy through altering the process of networking and the organization of one's connections.
Demi's main pain points source from lack of curated and interesting information, along with lack of organization. We found that this can be resolved through a discover feed, and better organized notifications.
Initial Design Stages
As we brainstormed how we wanted to implement new features and flows to the platform, LinkedIn actually began rolling out updates for the same idea (i.e. Discovery). For consistency, we used the same design language that was implemented.
Information Architecture
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Discover section for content that interests the users.
Live Conversation used to increase interaction between users through topic-based conversation
Separated feeds to allow users to see what they want, when they want to.
Prioritizing connections to boost engagement and accessibility.
Notifications can now be categorized by type, along with pinned and deleted.
Customizable message templates to start conversation.
After conducting our user testing, we realized that many of our implemented solutions did not fully tackle the problems presented to us, but rather just shifted and tweaked the app's interface. We decided to take a step back and do more research about our audience, and how we can better instill the app's mission into the product itself.
Through more group brainstorming, reading up on articles about online interactions, and listening to more people about their experience networking, we formulated more insights to ensure that we were able to truly fostering and building more authentic connections on the app.
Back to Research
Final Design Stage
Discover Page High-Fidelity Wireframe
Discover Page
The Discover Page features the news, live conversations, events, and groups. Users like Demi can access a wider range of content, or more personalized content through the tagging system.
Live Conversations can be found in the Discover page. Here, users like Sahil can cultivate their professional network. While a certain amount of speakers can participate, listeners can still engage in a live chat.
Live Conversations
Home Page High-Fidelity Wireframe
The new and decluttered Home Page allows users to separates content into two sections, My Feed and Network Activity. Here, users like Demi can easily find content that she is looking for, giving her more control over what she sees.
My Network High-Fidelity Wireframe
The Invitation process now has two added steps. To place more emphasize on authentic connections through transparency, users can pitch themselves to their desired connection. They can share what they hope to gain, what they can offer, and a short message.
This redesigned process can aid users like Sahil who hope to grow professionally through networking
Sending an Invitation
Prioritize a Connection
Messages High-Fidelity Wireframe
The customizable message templates are useful to younger professionals new in the networking space. These templates offer users a sense of confidence when reaching out to their connections for the first time.
Notifications High-Fidelity Wireframe
Through notification organization, users like Demi can now easily sift through their notifications. These notifications are split between different categories, allowing users to see and manage what they want to see.
Next Steps
Usability Testing, Final Product
This case study was one of the longest, but more rewarding project yet! It was a long semester of laborious biweekly meetings. One of the most important moments of this project was our second round of user interviews. Being able to take a step back and reflect on the impact of our added features uncovered the deeper meaning of this project: centering the human experience,
I've learned the importance of collaboration in a design setting. It is important to learn from other users, through interviews and research, but it also essential to a project to gain insights from other designers. During our meetings, we would constantly bounce ideas off of each other, which ended up helping our team produce rewarding and creative solutions.