9 Things that LinkedIn can do better : A list to make LinkedIn user's life simple.

LinkedIn has come a long way since its old avatar, but not enough. Lots of Eeeek! moments still get in the way of awesome usability and features experience.

Linkedin keeps on asking me time and again to provide a feedback. Today, i have taken out some time to put all the requirements from you and me here.

Don't forget to add to this list of features that really bug you on Linkedin, in the comments section

(1) Mobile App lags the web experience and features :

70% of the world is accessing the internet through phones, but LinkedIn still lags in being Mobile first.

• Tons of Web-only features on LinkedIn: Many features are only available on the web browser and not via app. I don't know why, but you can't publish a post on the go, check your profile stats, change some settings, see ALL updates on the mobile.
• Example: Updates on new connections, someone sharing your post etc. will not appear on the Mobile feed update, but only on the desktop version.
• Suggestion: If it is by design, tell us so, if it is by accident, then do a cross platform usability analysis.

(2) Notes on Messages and Comments Template

• Different callouts and default message on web vs Mobile The default messages for "ways to keep in touch" feature is different on web than mobile, doesn't make sense.
• Synchronization issues between Web and App for some data: Linkedin doesn't synchronize data between web and app in time.Imagine reading a message on the app in the morning, open the web in the evening, and the same message again there marked as to be read! Imagine 30 people who have written to you, and you can almost see me making 30 one fingered clicks.
• No on-the-fly Autosave as you type on the App: Try doing this. Type in a reply to anyone's comment, or reply to a message on the app, go to another screen(like check your calendar) and come back, the unsent, typed message will disappear.

(3) LinkedIn Jobs

• Data Mining with Fake Jobs: Multiple job sites seem to be mining LinkedIn data to get registrations via Fake postings. Pay LinkedIn, Post a lucrative looking Confidential Job. Ask the user to apply off-LinkedIn. Get the details. The behavior reeks of the same "Do any of the following action to get your free movie" Fraud. In one case,
• Inadequate Filters and sorting : Geographical filters are all over the place, try filtering Jobs by India and you will know. You can only filter on cities, if you move somewhere and come back, apply the filters again.On the app, you can't filter a search till you create a job alert. Sorting options like new to old are missing.

(4) Advertising Platform

• Buggy Advertising setup(India): Try creating an ad in India and the dollar sign and rupee sign will keep interchanging while you are setting up the Ad. So you will not know if $10 or INR10 is the limit.
• Can't delete account page once added -Once you add an account page to your campaign; you can't remove it! Even if you don't have a campaign with It. So God forbid if you clicked on the wrong company by mistake as the name sounded similar and both were in two different countries, you are done.
• No Solution for Individual pages:I understand that the "sponsored content" and other advertising products are made for businesses to use. But doesn't mean that you prohibit individual use. I suggest advertising products made available to individuals to allow users to create Advertisements for their posts and profile on LinkedIn.

• (Above Facebook advert)When Facebook asks you to create a Product Page before creating advertising, They are selling Likes and a platform for business to customer engagement.It's not the same as on LinkedIn, which is in the leads selling business. So why does any individual need a business page to buy ads? Why can't users land on my profile page or my posts?

(5) Linkedin Publishing

• Post writing module is buggy :Writing on the LinkedIn Publishing Platform can sometimes be a nightmare. I have had posts where the post will not
• Can't Reposition or resize images :You can't reposition the image in a post, you can't resize it. You have only one set of bullet points and 3 text sizes. I am reminded of Yahoo Geocities at this point.
• Can't insert images directly from Web..and endless list of things.
• Buggy Publishing action: Try this, If you press the publish button on a post(not share), and then cancel it, the Post is published but doesn't appear on feeds.....and ....many...more bugs. Like try (CTRL+Z) on a post, doesn't work half the times.

(6) UI and UX for the entire site/app

• Multi-tasking while writing posts not allowed;No access to rest of LinkedIn from post editing page!. Hit on "write a post button"..the edit page will open up. right? Now try seeing if anyone messaged you...You can't!! You can't do anything on LinkedIn because now you are not on LinkedIn for all practical purposes. You are in Post Writing Land. I am sure LinkedIn sent you there because when you are writing, that is all you want to do.
• Top level menus : Home, Profile, Learning and Jobs, Top menu have their own pages while others don't. Clicking on any of these opens up relevant page, But if you click on learning, it opens up in a separate Tab which doesn't make sense. I have serious doubt if there is any design audit system on the UI/UX behavior at LinkedIn. It feels more like inconsistent fly-by design and development.

Above was just one example of things, I can count many more, here are few more

• One-Click Connect only if Linkedin Recommends else fill a form :Right from different "ways to keep in touch" messages as default on mobile vs. the Web, if you click add as a contact on someone's profile page, you fill 10 different questions but if LinkedIn suggested someone to you, all you need is one click to add the person. The thing is, you will still need multiple clicks to add the same person if you found the profile in any other way.
• Non-Uniform character display length : Basic things ones like the post title character length that should be uniform on your post page, feed page, update page and notification page, is not so. For instance, look at below example. In one LinkedIn mentions the entire length of a post, while in updates, it runs out of space and ends up trimming the title

• One of many on LinkedIn Publishing platform is the small floating square. Start writing a bullet list. On an empty bullet, just click n the hovering square next to your bullet and try to insert an image. The Square does nothing, yet appears on bullet lists.

(7) Copyright Protection?

• Flag Copyrighted content - I see tons of content with clipart and graphics which are being lifted from the web and used in content. I also see these content as featured on LinkedIn pages and pulse. If it's your artwork, there is no way to flag it on copyright issues. Recently, one linkedin user who is a student told me that her post has been plagiarized by another user, and she doesn't know what to do!
• You can send attachments in messages, How about a Virus Scanner or doc preview? -How about a virus scanner for documents given that over 28% of users are HR people, very susceptible to a data hack using attachment malware.

(8) LinkedIn Connections

• Sorting :LinkedIn feels that if you are trying to sort your contact base, the only way you would want to sort them is "Newly added" or by "Name". So if you are visiting Mumbai and you want to look up connections in Mumbai, nothing doing. No doubt that the average user on LinkedIn is sub 500.
• Who puts filtering as a premium option?: It's not enough that you can't connect to anyone you want, you can't even filter your connection till you pay LinkedIn some money. I don't know who came up with this idea, but this is not how you sell premium. How much does a sorting cost for one to charge for it?
• Limit of 30,000: I don't know how many people know, but recently LinkedIn just cleaned up people with over 30,000

(9) No bug filing mechanism

• I have not been able to find a bug filing or feature request mechanism on LinkedIn. I am sure there must be one, only if I could find it.

LAST WORD

I am not sure if LinkedIn employees love LinkedIn.

So, I am not sure if the experience will become better, or at least at par with other social networks. But as a user, I hope it does.

So what do you think? Don't hesitate to comment below.

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The views expressed here are my own and don't reflect the opinions of any of my past or present employers.