LinkedIn Desktop Gets a Major Makeover.

Over the next few weeks, LinkedIn will be rolling out a major redesign of the desktop version with important new features. The desktop is becoming smarter, more personalised, and more engaging; the new version will closely mirror the mobile one to create a more consistent user experience across all devices.

There have been many changes over the last 18 months, this latest evolution of LinkedIn, however, is in my opinion, the biggest and most important update since the company went public in 2011.

As I write this I don't yet have the new version so these observations are based on LinkedIn's presentations, and what I have read - the final version may have minor differences.

The update introduces a more consistent and less cluttered user experience which LinkedIn hopes will give users more confidence in using the desktop product and therefore make more use of it. There is some evidence for this - following the redesign of the mobile app in 2015, there has been a 30% year on year increase in activity and a big increase in user messaging.

Home Page and News Feed

Let's take a look at the new Home Page. Mobile app users will immediately recognise the slimmed down menu with the following main options:

• Home
• My Network
• Jobs
• Messaging
• Notifications
• Me

Overall, I think you will agree, it's a much cleaner and simpler design, The confusing post options, for example, have now been incorporated into one window.

New Simpler Home Page

Home Page Feed

Under the covers, some major tweaking has been going on with the LinkedIn algorithm to make the feed even more relevant to your needs. The algorithm takes cues from your profile, your company, what you engage with and who you interact with to serve up content that fits with your interests and activities.

It will also be much easier to drill down on an article and find related content and people. I understand that users will also be able to nominate specific areas of interest.

Hopefully, the changes to the Home Page feed will make it genuinely more relevant. I am a little sceptical about over-reliance on the algorithm, I would like to see users have more flexibility over the content they see. For example, Google Plus used to have an option where you could increase or decrease the number of posts from a connection rather than just a hide option.

In practice, you probably will not notice a huge difference in your feed, much of which will still largely be sourced from companies you follow, your network and particular topics you have chosen to follow.

Profile Page

Whilst the profile page will still incorporate the key elements of the current page, some of the furniture has been moved around, for example with a person's posts and activity being given more prominence. I find the new page is easier on the eye, with less distractions. Instead of scrolling down to see everything which could get tedious for a well-populated profile, viewers will be able to step through to the additional areas that interest them.

As you can see the "people also viewed panel" is very prominent, I am not sure whether this panel deserves almost a fifth of the available space. What do you think? I wonder what the profile looks like when this is switched off in settings.

The new profile page design

Messaging

One of the stand-out successes of the LinkedIn mobile app redesign has been a massive 240% increase in messages exchanged by members. You may have noticed LinkedIn have been tweaking the message feature on the desktop recently, for example, you can now message people who send a connection request BEFORE you decide to connect, new connections now automatically appear in the message window with a prompt to start a conversation.

The latest messaging redesign will build on these changes and make it easier to keep in touch with your network and reach out to new people. LinkedIn's bots will even start writing the message for you based on the context. The goal is to take some of the work out of writing and sending messages. We will have to see how well this works in practice.

LinkedIn Learning

Just over a year ago LinkedIn bought Lynda.com, an online learning website, for $1.5bn. This has now been fully incorporated into LinkedIn and renamed LinkedIn Learning. There are over 5,000 online courses which individuals can purchase. The feature comes bundled with premium accounts. Free account users have to subscribe.

The learning feature is going to become more and more important for LinkedIn as the company pursues its vision of empowering the global economy through its Economic Graph, a digital map of the global economy, including all of the world's workforce, and an inventory of every job and the skills needed to do it.

Crucially companies will be able to put together custom training courses for their teams using the LinkedIn Learning library. This could really create some momentum for the learning feature, which has been slow to take off until now.

LinkedIn Learning is bundled free with some premium accounts

Conclusion

LinkedIn has stated there are three main drivers for the changes:

1.   To create a more consistent interface across all devices.

2.   To simplify the user experience.

3.   To help users become more confident in using the platform.

These are laudable aims. There is no denying the desktop version had become over complicated. Clearly delighted with the success of the message redesign, LinkedIn is hoping that the new, simpler, desktop design will have a similar impact on overall user engagement.

Initial impressions are that LinkedIn has done a good job in making things more user-friendly, and I predict the average user will be pleased with the changes, more experienced users, however, will feel worried that valuable features may be lost. 

For me, the biggest concern is what will happen to advanced search. In the screenshots above, you can see how the standard search box is expanded across the screen but “advanced search” currently to the right of the search box is nowhere to be seen. Does this mean that advanced search will now be reduced to just four filters as on the mobile?

I don't have to tell you that for some time now, LinkedIn has been gradually removing features from the free version. Will the redesign result in a further loss of free features, pushing more users towards paid accounts? This is perhaps the fourth unstated driver behind the changes.

If you found this post useful please like and share it so others can too. Thanks.

You can read my other LinkedIn posts here: 

STOP PRESS: 09.12.2016

My colleague and fellow LinkedIn trainer Mark Williams has a beta version of the new desktop design and I can confirm Advanced Search has been replaced by a simpler, reduced, search feature which mirrors the mobile search with just 4 filters instead of 20+. In future, the "saved searches" feature will only be available for Sales Navigator or Recruitment products.

I will write again when I have more information.

 __________________________

Greg Cooper is an independent LinkedIn consultant and trainer based in Bristol, UK. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing. For over twenty years Greg ran an award-winning direct marketing agency working with leading technology companies like IBM, SAP, and Siemens. 

Today he works with SMEs and Business Units of larger companies. He runs public and in-house courses for business owners, managers and sales people including courses on social selling and employee advocacy. 

For an individual discussion of your business's needs call +44 (0)7917 360222. or email [email protected] You can also follow Greg on Twitter