kevinbury.com Blog

Introducing the redesigned LinkedIn Recruiter product

In addition to the main LinkedIn site (linkedin.com), LinkedIn also has other products. Last week we launched a redesigned version of LinkedIn Recruiter, a product for corporate recruiters.

The primary objectives of the redesign were:

• Bring relevant information to the user rather than making them search for it.
• Reduce the amount of space devoted to navigation. Free-up space for page content.
• Bring the design more in line with the recently redesigned LinkedIn consumer site.
• Provide users with information about team members.
• Foster re-use of designs and code between the consumer and recruiter web sites.

The new LinkedIn Recruiter home page serves as a dashboard of relevant information important to the corporate recruiter. On the left is a list of projects – both private projects as well as shared team projects. In the center is a list of the the most recently received messages. Below that is a feed of recent team activity.

Corporate recruiters frequently work on teams. The new Team Activity module provides a feed of information about the activity of other team members working on shared projects. A user also sees their own activity in the feed.

On the right side of the home page are modules that provide status on things important to the recruiter. On the top is a summary of saved searches which highlights new results. Next is a summary of the jobs the recruiter has open. Below that is a status showed the amount of shared resources available, along with an easy way to request additional resources from the administrator.

LinkedIn Recruiter is an indispensable tool for thousands of corporate recruiters. We worked closely with our customers in designing the new version. First, we held in-person sessions where we listened to the needs of our users. As we designed the new version we showed it to a sample of our customers and iterated on the design based on their feedback.

A lot of enterprise software does not have the quality and ease-of-use of consumer software. Our goal was to change this by taking the best of what we have learned from the LinkedIn consumer site and adapting it to the needs of corporate users. The response from customers has been very positive. We are learning more every day and have lots of additional enhancements planned.

More information about the new LinkedIn Recruiter.

February 7th, 2010

A new way to navigate LinkedIn

Recently, we launched a new site navigation design for LinkedIn. The first thing you’ll notice in the new design is that the old, persistent left-hand navigation area has been removed. All global navigation is in the top navigation bar. We did this in order to free up space for page content – information about you and your professional network.

Another thing you’ll notice is that the new global navigation bar takes up less vertical space. Page content is moved up higher on the page – less scrolling!

The global navigation bar

The global navigation bar is always available and provides convenient access to all LinkedIn services. Pass your mouse over the bar and you will see menus that provide quick access to the most popular LinkedIn features. For example, the Groups menu has links for finding and creating groups; it also has quick links for the groups you access the most often.

Local Navigation

When you are in an area of LinkedIn (such as Contacts or Groups) you see local navigation. The major sub areas are in tabs along the top of the page. If the page allows filtering of content (such as Discussions or Search Results) these options are shown on the left.

The redesign process

We began the redesign effort by analyzing how people use LinkedIn. We looked at what features people use the most and pored over several years of data from usability research on the site. Armed with this information we began doing design explorations of how to better organize LinkedIn features, and make them more convenient to find and use.

We factored into this effort additional features we knew were coming. We narrowed down the designs to a few candidates we felt were strong contenders. We then prototyped these designs and had users perform tasks with the prototypes in the usability lab. We went through numerous iterations until we arrived at a design we felt worked the best.

On some pages, the new navigation can increase the amount of space available for page content by almost a third. In the coming weeks and months look for LinkedIn to provide continually improved and relevant content to occupy this space. Stay tuned.

For more information see the following.

• A new design for LinkedIn
• A new way to navigate LinkedIn

January 6th, 2010