LinkedIn's mobile app was in dire need of an overhaul, and it finally got one today with the long overdue launch of its redesigned apps for Android and iOS. The streamlined app experience still doesn't include access to the advanced search, groups, job hunting, and LinkedIn Pulse functionality siloed in other apps within LinkedIn's social media app bundle. But the main app's user interface (UI), messaging, profile editing, and connection feed are vastly improved.
For me, one of the most frustrating aspects of LinkedIn's longstandingiPhone app was that it still felt like a desktop application shrunk onto a smartphone-sized screen. There were enough design tweaks to make it usable, but the static-feeling pages, uniform scrolling feeds, and a bulky navigation pane with a couple of mobile buttons and icons on top gave the impression of a cheap facelift. That's essentially what the updates were as LinkedIn's last major Android and iOS upgrades happened in 2013.
I played around with the updated app on my iPhone so this walkthrough doesn't cover any Android-specific features. That said, the iOS app packs a significantly deeper level of control over profile curation and networking. This update shows LinkedIn is serious about creating a full-featured mobile platform for the growing contingent of business users who have left desktop behind. Here are five additions of note:
1. Finally, Intuitive Design
The redesigned app has a cleaner layout, borrowing UI and user experience (UX) design principles from social networking apps, news apps, and games, and has even adopted aspects of app culture's latest design craze: Tinder-like swiping functionality. LinkedIn didn't reinvent the wheel but, tapping around the iOS app, I found the UI has finally caught up with the times. The minimalist Share bar atop the Home tab is a straight-up Facebook clone, in a good way. You can write a post, mention colleagues, toggle privacy, and add photos and links without having to think about how it will appear. LinkedIn seems to finally understand that the sharing process should be ubiquitous across social apps.
Even starker is the switch to card-based design in the Home and My Network feeds. Again looking like an extension of Facebook, LinkedIn's post and update feeds are now clearly delineated boxes appearing onscreen one at a time, with link previews and like, comment, and share options. Cards have emerged as the most easily digestible, shareable visual element to keep a mobile user's attention, and interacting with LinkedIn cards is now straightforward. My favorite new design element, though, is the card stack atop the My Network tab. Swiping left or right on compact cards is a far more fun way to whizz through connections' new jobs, work anniversaries, added skills, and birthdays—especially when a lot of the updates aren't necessarily relevant. If LinkedIn's information itself is going to remain cluttered, at least you can have fun decluttering.
2. More Natural Messaging
Messaging in LinkedIn has improved steadily on desktop over the past year or so, away from the antiquated feel of InMail, and mobile has finally made the leap as well. Messaging is now similar toFacebook Messenger andWhatsApp in that it feels more like natural texting, with clear, circular profile icons, simple date and time stamps on messages, an option to toggle notifications on and off for conversations, and LinkedIn's own version of emoji stickers—though, at launch, the selection is pretty bare. Sending smiley-faced coffee cups and professional cat emojis through LinkedIn does feel somewhat out of place for the "professional" social network, but with GIFs and emoji reactions now commonplace in workplace productivity applications such as Slack, LinkedIn is no longer content to be boring.
3. No-Hassle Profile Editing
The main reason I was always reticent to add major profile updates such as a new job via mobile was the fear that the app's clunky editor would screw it up. In the new Me tab, LinkedIn gives you a circular + icon similar to the Compose function in Google's revamped Inbox. When pressed, a clear form pops up to allow you to add a new work experience, education, skills, etc., on your profile, and gives you a preview of how it will render on your public page. The same goes for the pencil icon in the top right-hand corner of each card on your profile to update existing content. The Me tab also gives you a handy information bar showing you how many profile views you've received in the past 90 days (which opens into a card-based list), and how many views your posts have received. It drives home the "social" element of how you're perceived on LinkedIn in a far more transparent way. The clearer workflow and update process isn't revolutionary by any stretch, but the profile-editing update fixed a core issue that had been plaguing LinkedIn's mobile app.
4. Networking Bells and Whistles 
When it comes down to actually seeking out and connecting with new people, I found the My Network and Search tabs much improved. LinkedIn stated its internal search is now 300 times faster. While I can't confirm that number right now, search results populated for me within a second or two (and now with much deeper tools for refining the data). I was able to drill down by first, second, or third connections, as well as by location, current company, or industry from within the mobile search box. For this level of search refinement before, the desktop site was your only option. You can also sync your phone contacts and calendar to find new connections, and the app helps you prepare for upcoming meetings by surfacing a snapshot of the parties' profiles. Another small but not insignificant change is your connection list, which is now laid out far more clearly in an iPhone-like, vertical A-Z format.
When it comes down to actually seeking out and connecting with new people, I found the My Network and Search tabs much improved. LinkedIn stated its internal search is now 300 times faster. While I can't confirm that number right now, search results populated for me within a second or two (and now with much deeper tools for refining the data). I was able to drill down by first, second, or third connections, as well as by location, current company, or industry from within the mobile search box. For this level of search refinement before, the desktop site was your only option. You can also sync your phone contacts and calendar to find new connections, and the app helps you prepare for upcoming meetings by surfacing a snapshot of the parties' profiles. Another small but not insignificant change is your connection list, which is now laid out far more clearly in an iPhone-like, vertical A-Z format.
5. Not Sold On App Bundling
Alright, I lied. I've only listed four cool new features. As much of an improvement as LinkedIn's new mobile app is, I still don't agree with the company's strategy of bundling core platform features into separate apps. On the top right-hand side of the Home tab is a small grid icon, which calls up a sidebar prompting you to download LinkedIn's half dozen other apps (i.e., Job Search, Groups, Pulse, Slideshare, Lynda.com, and Lookup). The app-bundling strategy works for some companies—Facebook has turned Messenger into one of the most popular apps in the App Store and Google Play Store—but, for LinkedIn, it has always and still feels disjointed from a UX standpoint, particularly after revamping its main app.
LinkedIn Pulse, Lynda.com, and Slideshare are separate enough entities with diverging focuses worthy of standalone apps. But Job Search and Lookup are both now superfluous given the improvements to built-in search, and those capabilities could easily be integrated. Real-world job search results for recruiters and talent is what LinkedIn has always sold itself on, and clinging to a separate app for that core user purpose is a mistake. I would argue that Groups should be folded into its own tab within the main app as well, giving users quicker access to LinkedIn's extensive network of professional communities, rather than giving the impression that the communities are a separate component to the social network. Integrating another search parameter to filter by communities would be even better. Bundling is a worthwhile strategy to give certain apps a wider reach by segmenting their use cases, but for LinkedIn to take that final step toward true mobile usability, they've got to unbundle and consolidate.
Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com , http://pixotrigames.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment