Reimagining Linkedin’s strategy and experience — a UX case study
How I completely redesigned the strategy and experience of the Linkedin to make it into a platform which is beneficial to both employees and employers.
With over 500 Million users and revenue of $1.1 billion, LinkedIn is one of the widely used websites by every student, business and IT professional. According to the early 2018 statistics
- 40 million students and recent college graduates are on LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn now has 3 million active job listings on the platform.
- 44% of Linked users earn more than $75,000 in a year.
- Percentage of users that use Linkedin Daily: 40%
Yes, these are all big numbers and this is because of the global reach and its daily use. Right from Job listings and Company search to InMail messages , Introductions , References, Skill endorsements, the portal also provides Network suggestions, Lead builder (premium feature), Sales alerts (premium feature) and Reference search (premium feature).
Many of us, both students and employees are in a constant search for jobs. On an average, a person who is out in the market looking for a job applies to 30–40 jobs in a day. Linkedin provides a lot of features for job search and communication, but there are few things which it misses. Obviously, a single portal cannot do it all.
Some of the many things involved here and many apps which we use for Job Search are listed below:
- Job Search: Linkedin/Indeed,
- Application Tracking : Google Sheets, Notes,
- Interviews & Alerts: Reminders/Alarms,
- Communication: Email/Phone and many more.
Because, these are such time-consuming tasks and it sometimes frustrates the user , I thought of conceptualizing an app and brainstormed with many students and employees who are using linkedin, the process to make the app better. I envision Linkedin to more as shown below :
To understand the process better, I will show and go through the workflow of the current Linkedin Jobs App and how users do things when they apply to jobs and track, list out what’s not user friendly about the elements present and then provide my version of the redesign to improve the app’s usability and suggest new features which might please the user. These feature suggestions might change the entire game of Recruiting process. Let’s dive in. ( at least that’s what I hope so..)
Process
User Research
So, the process started like this. Since most of us face this common problem I tried to take it to the social platform and was fascinated to see the number of comments and messages i received on the article about the design flaws of linkedin apps. I selected 18 out of all the users such that everyone is covered ( young , old , employees , students , male , female, local , international) . I have started off by creating a survey with 25 structured questions. Then this was followed by direct interaction with the potential users ( few of them whom I met and few other through video interviews ) . I tried to understand and listed out all the problems which they were facing and noted down the things which needed to be retained.
Personas
Based on hearing to different stories and comments, I came up with 2 User Persona, one would be the employee/student whose ultimate goals are most likely the same when they use linkedin. The second persona would be the recruiter. I created the profiles, their mission statement, end goals and frustrations to better understand the user.
Data Analysis & Workflow Diagram
I have received lots of opinions, comments, and suggestions and every participant in the study were facing some common issues but never complained. So, I grouped and sorted the entire data based on techniques like card sorting. It was much better to perform design on grouped data and it helped me to easily create the information architecture.
After going through the user comments, I tried to analyze as a user the current scenario in the case of applying for jobs and the post-application process and was found many cases in the workflow where a lot of time is being wasted and there can be a room for improvement. For better understanding, I made a workflow of the current scenario ( the image below) which gives you the flaws or time taking action ( the blocks in red ) in the application and interview process.
Since I have come up with the current usability flaws with the system I started to think of ideas to make the flow better. I have brainstormed and started sketching simultaneously at the same time to come up with some features which would delight the users a lot. Here is a list of features at a superficial view. I will dig deeper when I get to the actual screens. Also, you can see the sketches I had initially with different designs and how I came up with a final design.
Please clap and encourage me to write more.
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Wireframes
After several iterations of quick sketches, i proceeded further to create wireframes using Balsamiq Mockups to get a sample look and understand the flow between screens . Here are the screens created.
Visual Interactive Prototype
After testing the flow and connections between the pages, I went ahead and created the screens using Adobe XD and created the links between them easily. To show the interactions between the screens in a more intuitive way I used Protopie and created subtle animations using the tool. Below you can find the link for the interactive prototype. To understand each feature better I have given notes on each page.
You can look at the demo reel of the app here below.
After creating the prototype in protopie, this was also tested with the potential users and got an amazing feedback which says that the users love it and say that the features presented solves their daily problem of job applications & tracking.
Here above, in the filters section, though there is no salary section as of now. But it would be a really great addition. Just like Glassdoor, Linkedin can have salary information attached to the job card so that users who like salary preferences are satisfied. Also, I have included an option to “Include jobs with no salary data” so that the job cards without any salary are also listed when searched.
Click on the below link to check the interactive prototype.
Interactive Prototype Guide :
- Step 1 : Click on the Search bar
- Step 2: Click on the Search bar again to check the animation
- Step 3: Click on the first link UX Designer
- Step 4: This is the results page . Click on Filters to check those.
- Step 5: Click on Cancel ( top of the page ) to go back
- Step 6: Click on the Interviews icon at the bottom of the page. You will be redirected to the Interviews dashboard
- Step 7: Click on the calendar below the cards.
- Step 8: Click the List view at the bottom.
- Step 9: Click on the Action Needed.
- Step 10: Click on the Google card
- Step 11: Click on the Schedule
- Step 12: Click on Book
- Step 13: Click close to see the modified card.
Bonus
Also, there is an idea in addition to all the features mentioned above.
So, since I am including the features related to applying, post-application tracking process and just the communication during the interview process, What if Linkedin portal can be extended to the actual interview process.
So, recruiters generally use Telephone/ Skype for conducting interviews. Since Microsoft owns both Linkedin and Skype, why can’t we integrate Skype to linkedin so that it can work more efficiently. So, the initial rounds are set.
Now , coming to the further stages. Lets take an example of Coding tests. These are generally conducted through services like HackerRank and others. But as a Technical Recruiter, I would want to actually look how the applicant is coding when he is working on the coding test. For example, the way he defines variables, the way he initiates and starts writing the code. In the case of hackerrank, the end product would be visible to the tech recruiter but any day, a pro coder can be easily spotted by looking at the way he codes.
So, I propose a Coding portal which can be integrated to the Skype video, where both recruiter and the candidate can see each other and they share a common screen with command line ( Coding Environment ) .
- Here in this environment both of them can type simultaneously.
- Pre Defined Question Sets — There will be sets of questions (Code Snippets) already created . so the recruited can easily drag and drop them into the portal.
- Also, depends on the type of the interview, different Interviewing portals can be created by Linkedin developers who can publish these and they can be easily integrated. For Example, Portal to easily create connections between network, network simulators for Networking based interviews. For UX Design based interviews, a portal where one can easily have an interface like balsamiq mockups where the recruiter can ask a question “ Create a simple Onboarding UI” and the user can easily drag drop elements and create simple UIs. I know this is still an idea , but may be we can discuss this further and take it forward. This is still work in progress. (WIP)
I hope you enjoyed the new features and my prototype just like other users. I totally enjoyed this entire process and I think Linkedin has a great potential to include all these ( given the business conditions are met) and much more . IT would be amazing to discuss more about this and know your opinions and suggestions as you have far better expertise in the field. Looking forward to those talks. May the force be with you ❤
