Redesigning the ‘Resources’ Feature of Linkedin💮
The ‘Resources’ feature of LinkedIn provides members with a range of content, including videos, articles, posts, courses, and podcasts, to improve their professional skills and knowledge. These resources are available for free, and members can access them from the LinkedIn homepage or their personalized feed.
The Resources feature covers a range of topics, including career development👏, leadership😎, diversity👫and inclusion👥, entrepreneurship💪, and mental health💬. LinkedIn partners with industry leaders and experts to provide members with exclusive content, ensuring they receive the most relevant and up-to-date information.
Benefits of the Resources Feature💫:
The Resources feature has several benefits for LinkedIn members, including:
- Enhanced Learning: The Resources feature provides members with access to a wealth of educational content that can help them improve their professional skills and knowledge🙇.
- Personalization: The feature uses machine learning algorithms to suggest relevant content based on members’ interests and activity on the platform🙋.
- Convenience: Members can access the Resources feature from anywhere, at any time, making it convenient for them to learn at their own pace🙎.
- Expert Insights: The Resources feature provides members with exclusive insights and advice from industry leaders and experts, helping them stay ahead of the curve in their respective fields🙆.
Why is it so crucial? Even for Linkedin!
LinkedIn has reported a significant growth in engagement with the Resources feature. In a recent blog post, the company reported that over 3 million hours⏰😎 of content had been consumed through the feature in just six months. Since its launch, the feature has received positive feedback from members, with many praising the quality and relevance of the content 👏
LinkedIn has partnered with leading organizations such as McKinsey & Company, Coursera, and Skillsoft to provide members with exclusive access to their courses and resources📚. This has further enhanced the value proposition of the Resources feature, making it a compelling reason for professionals to join and engage with LinkedIn.
My only problem is with its UI right now. Like seriously, it’s such a popular and widely used platform and therefore it should be very intuitive, with no extra steps or clicking. The information or resources should be rightly available without having to look for them.
Making little amends to Linkedin’s big feature! 🌟
Have you ever found yourself scrolling through Linkedin’s “Resources” tab, only to get lost in a sea of text, lots of white space, and clunky navigation?
Yeah, I’ve been there too 😒
I mean what’s the need of taking the entire central page width only to show a list of two items out of which the top one is of no use at least to me because I am not a Linkedin creator (yet…😛) and the second one which is barely used after you have made connections🤝
It takes an extra click (argghhh..😖 to see all 5 resources). Whereas in so little digital real estate Twitter gives almost 8 different types of information (such as tweets, retweets, views, likes, messages, etc. even that’s a bit annoying😕).
I consider LinkedIn an extremely useful website, especially for professionals like me who are constantly updating and adding new things to their resumes and portfolios䷑. LinkedIn gives us an excellent platform to showcase not only our education/certification but also our skills, projects, and professional identity. It is like an Instagram for Work! 🌟
Let’s do something…🤔
Disclaimer: The proficient UX/UI designers are working great but I am just helping out by proposing a few changes myself!
💮My designs… taadaaaa!!!💮
I am choosing to design this tab with cards. There are several benefits of using cards, including:
- Enhance organization and structure: Cards provide a clear and concise way to present information, which helps to organize and structure the UI design.
- Easy to scan and digest: Cards are easy to scan and digest, as they present small, bite-sized pieces of information at a time. This makes it easier for users to quickly understand the content and find what they’re looking for.
- Flexible layout: Cards can be arranged in different layouts, such as grids or stacks, to create a visually appealing and flexible UI design. This allows designers to experiment with different arrangements until they find the best one for their design.
- Improved user engagement: Cards are visually appealing and can be used to showcase images, videos, or other multimedia content, which can help to increase user engagement and encourage interaction with the UI.
- Responsive design: Cards can be easily adapted to different screen sizes and devices, making them ideal for responsive design. This means that the UI design can be optimized for various devices and platforms, ensuring a consistent user experience across different screens.
- Easy to update: Cards can be updated individually, making it easy to make changes to the UI without having to redesign the entire layout. This makes it easier to keep the UI design up-to-date and relevant.
🧰 Simple Steps, Great Impact! 🔨
To make the Resources tab more user-friendly🤝, attractive🥀, and legible🕮, it requires a thoughtful approach that accounts for the needs and preferences of the platform’s diverse user base.
Here are a few steps that I took to redesign the Resources tab:
- Conducting User Research📘: To understand what people want from the “Resources” tab. I gathered feedback from users (via secondary sources such as Reddit, Quora, etc.) and used it to inform my design decisions.
2. Simplify the Layout 💫📐: The current “Resources” tab can look hidden, unnecessary real-estate consuming, and requires multiple clicks to view all resources. Simplifying the layout by using clear headings, grouping related content together, and using visual hierarchy to guide users through the page can help consolidate the material and help the user find the Resource tab more quickly and effectively.
3. Visual hierarchy and white space 📝: Using digital real estate diligently to make the page more visually appealing and engaging. Grouping icons and removing unnecessary text to make it easier to scan and find what users are looking for.
4. Improve legibility 💁: Legibility is key to making the “Resources” tab more user-friendly. Using fonts/icons that are easy to read, choosing colors that have good contrast, and making sure there is enough whitespace to give the content room to breathe.
I am using #F5F5F5 (Light grey) which LinkedIn uses for its background because the UI is only black and white apart from the statement blue color of LinkedIn. The interface gets colors only from the posted content of users.
5. Make it interactive👑: Make the “Resources” tab interactive by adding features like hover effects, animations, and interactive elements. That can help engage users and make the page more fun to explore.
But, I have decided to make simple and a few changes. It is easy to redesign the entire web app with what I think is best but even after lots of user research, one must not scratch everything that has been here before. Therefore, it is often better to make incremental changes that users can adapt to gradually. This approach aligns with the “Principle of least astonishment,” which states that a user interface should behave in a way that most users expect it to behave.
By redesigning small elements or features of LinkedIn, the platform can improve its user experience while avoiding shocking users with drastic changes. This way, users can continue to use the platform with ease, and the redesign can be implemented without causing significant disruptions.
6. Test and iterate 📲: Testing my design with users and iterating based on their feedback. Continue to refine the design until I’ve created a “Resources” tab that is intuitive, visually appealing, and easy to use.
By following these steps, I created a redesigned “Resources” tab that is user-friendly, intuitive, and legible.
Thank you so much and until next time :)
