I contributed to the overall design process from beginning to end, putting special focus on UI design, making prototypes, and usability testing.
Iterated on designs based off feedback from user testing sessions in multiple stages of the project
Created robust lo-fi and hi-fi prototypes and polished final designs
Jan - Mar 2022 (10 weeks)
Academic project - team of 4 designers
Figma, Google Forms
The pandemic has brought about a much less productive lifestyle for many young professionals, reducing them from being at the peak of their lives to just going through the motions. This LinkedIn redesign aims to help them regain their productivity and motivation as they move forward in their careers by placing an emphasis on their personal goals.
"My feed is filled with people celebrating jobs when I am still searching." - Mica
Mica is an college undergraduate student who is trying hard to secure an internship for the upcoming summer, and LinkedIn is her main resource to find job postings and apply. As she scrolls through her feed, she sees multiple people celebrate about their summer internships, some of whom she doesn't even know.
To Mica, this is the last thing she wants to see. Her main goals are to network and find job opportunities, but the nature of the feed is too social and doesn't always feel like a professional environment. This demotivates her and makes her more stressed, and also induces feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
Let's celebrate! But not for you...
To steer the app into a direction that can motivate and encourage young professionals more, we need to explore ways to reduce social comparison and help them directly receive the information they need to succeed in the workforce and beyond.
How might we foster a conducive environment for young working professionals to network and find job opportunities while maintaining their health and mental state?
We surveyed undergraduate students and those with full-time jobs who had experience using LinkedIn as a resource to network and find jobs or internships. This is some of what we found:
38% of respondents said that LinkedIn had negative effects on their motivation
29% had positive experiences on LinkedIn that led to jobs
35% shared a common paint point: the excess of celebratory posts on the homepage is not helpful
If the homepage is so distracting, why not just avoid it?
About half of respondents shared how visiting the homepage is an integral part of their experience on LinkedIn, whether they follow motivational content or want to see what their connections are up to.
The issue comes when LinkedIn also shows what posts users' connections are reacting to as well, which are often celebratory posts from others who are not direct connections.
Meanwhile, the good news
Respondents that had positive experiences on LinkedIn that led to jobs typically had recruiters reach out to them, network and find leads, or develop soft skills through LinkedIn Learning. This shows that LinkedIn has the capabilities for people to find jobs, although not specifically through its job board function.
An audit on other competitor services like job boards show that they often do not have networking and mentorship features. By expanding on LinkedIn's capabilities in these aspects, LinkedIn can really stand out from all its competitors.
What about the homepage?
Services like ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Monster had a home page with just jobs and job descriptions - the purpose of the product is clear and there are little distractions. Because LinkedIn also has a job board, there is potential for its homepage to be more focused on jobs, as well as personal goals and more career-related content.
ZipRecruiter's Feed
LinkedIn's Feed
Potential Feed
We consolidated our survey insights into two user personas whose main goals are to network and find job opportunities.
First, I sketched a variety of screens that focused on finding ways to make it easier to connect with other people and groups.
Key Feature 1: I want to find a mentor on LinkedIn.
Key Feature 2: I want to customize and personalize my homepage.
We conducted usability testing sessions on 8 participants and asked them to navigate through several scenarios. Detailed observations were made about their behaviors and their ability to complete the scenarios, which helped us improve usability and accessibility to our features.
1. Created multiple entry points for the same feature
Participants were confused about how to access the homepage customization settings, so we increased the amount of entry points into the feature to reduce cognitive load.
2. More encouragement to connect with others, especially mentors
Participants weren't motivated to connect with mentors, which led to visual changes to make them seem more inviting. We also added a focus view where users can learn more information about each mentor.
Your own personal space for professional growth
This project was my first full case study, and my biggest takeaway was the importance of having a structured plan for usability testing. It allowed us to observe the behaviors that we wanted to see from our users, which led to a stronger solution overall. Another thing I learned was that it is important to introduce multiple entry points for the same feature in case users miss an entry point at any time. Given more time, I would've liked to add onboarding for these new features, and flush out the details of all the interactions within them.
Through multiple rounds of user research and usability testing on both low fidelity and high fidelity prototypes, we were able to make informed decisions that advocated for our users and brought them as much value as possible. Moving forward, my goal will be to continually check in on my users to make sure my designs align with their needs.
My amazing team and I at Disneyland
