Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Big Changes Coming to Look and Feel of LinkedIn

Posted by Amanda Walsh

LinkedIn is quietly rolling out a major site redesign to their more than 161 million users worldwide. The updates come at a perfect time, shortly after the news that Twitter and LinkedIn will no longer be partnering to allow tweets to be posted to LinkedIn. We noticed it in the office yesterday when some of us were able to see the new design on their profiles and others not.

TechCrunch reports that the layout “will put a lot more emphasis on building out relationships, make better use of socially curated news content — and, if things go according to plan, should make the site a lot more sticky.”

The new menu is darker and contains the same navigation, but will remain at the top of the page as you scroll. Also, LinkedIn Today features bigger images in the feed. Another addition is that the “people who have viewed your profile” feature will have more functionality with “message/connect” buttons right next to the person’s profile. The new gray/black layout plus other visual changes and button integration are meant to encourage sharing and engagement among users.

New Layout

Old Layout

The TechCrunch article notes that the redesign exhibits an overall move towards simplification for LinkedIn, which has also been asserted by the company CEO Jeff Weiner. As with most website design updates, the site’s algorithms will probably be revamped as well, leading to more accurate “people you may know” suggestions, targeted LinkedIn Today stories and ease of sharing and creating content. Have you noticed the changes on your LinkedIn profile yet?

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