Just last week, LinkedIn revealed plans for a complete desktop redesign- the biggest since the company’s launch back in 2003. With a new look and several feature updates ready to roll out this year, how will the change benefit users?

Known more for the professional networking opportunities it affords rather than aesthetics, LinkedIn boasts a huge active user base of around 106 million. This makes it the 17^th most popular social platform in the world, according to latest figures. But LinkedIn hopes that its makeover will help it to become much more than this, resulting in a site that is “cleaner, simpler and more intuitive”. The company also want to shift their image slightly away from a corporate social site, to one where users can spend more time on, as they would on Facebook, for instance. Therefore, the platform revealed it would be prioritising the user’s home feed, which will see the addition of an “Interests” column, showing trending news and topics from publications, its own users, and articles from bloggers and media outlets alike. The top navigation section will now also feature symbols to clearly show updates and notifications, while the “Publish a post” field has been enlarged, perhaps subtly encourage users to share more with their network. Profile pages have also been given a makeover- the layout now looks very similar to Facebook’s, with the user’s information to the left hand side, and post feed occupying the central column.

However, the site is still planning to maintain its reputation as a work-minded platform, rather than just a social networking site.  The introduction of a new learning platform is something that should set LinkedIn apart- this platform will feature content and online courses available from Lynda.com, the online education company it owns, in order to recommend material to LinkedIn’s professional users. Lynda.com currently offers a vast archive of video content, from expert tutorials, to videos teaching business, creative and tech skills. We imagine it will be this feature in particular that will account for a huge surge in popularity.

The other feature we see facilitating LinkedIn’s growth is its new messaging feature. The platform is taking another leaf out of Facebook’s book with this, which will result in something similar to Facebook Messenger. The site will display a new pop-out window at the bottom of the screen, enabling instant chat. The unique thing about this is also the fact that this will be integrated with a chat bot, who will be able to scan its users’ calendars in order to arrange meetings. Location preferences and past activity will also be taken into account, with the bot able to suggest suitable places too. Late last year, the company rolled out its redesigned mobile app, which emphasised its use as a messaging platform. Almost one year later, LinkedIn have remarked that this has helped generate a 240 percent increase in the number of messages sent- something the company likely hopes can be continued over to its desktop site.

What do you think about LinkedIn’s redesign? Are you looking forward to its release later this year? And do you think this will attract a greater audience to the platform? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.