LinkedIn Saved Posts
Project
2023-2024
UX Designer
B2C
Overview
"Just give me... one second... to find the post I saved that better illustrates what I'm trying to show you. I'm sure I saved it here, somewhere"
Spoiler alert: It in fact did not take her a second; it took her 5 minutes.
I was meeting with a senior product designer who wanted to show me an example of a concept she wanted me to execute. She had saved the post on LinkedIn that sparked this idea and wanted to show me, but a user task that was meant to be a breeze turned out to be a treasure hunt - and it took her forever to find it. There and then I discovered a UX problem that I knew I had to take on.
Although the LinkedIn platform has greatly amassed over 930 million users in 200 countries, performing simple tasks such as finding saved posts is a herculean task. The placement and inconsistency of the copy and design used for this feature make finding it tedious.
After discovering this problem, I went ahead to make a poll to validate if other users had this issue.
From the data above and using surveys in addition, I discovered it was a problem other users had identified.
What were the usability issues I observed?
Difficulty in navigating to “my items” under the “Resources” section where the saved posts are.
Lengthy and inconsistent copy used in description texts.
What were the usability issues I observed?
Difficulty in navigating to “my items” under the “Resources” section where the saved posts are.
Lengthy and inconsistent copy used in description texts.
How did I solve these usability issues?
After getting information through user interviews and research I was able to come up with solutions based on the user insights I gathered.
Mobile solution
What I did: I redesigned the menu section to include the “Saved items” feature and removed it from the “Resources” section and removed the lengthy descriptions and introduced icons.
My Rationale: Making the saved items visible will increase the rate at which users revert to it.
Desktop solution
What I did: I changed the copy from “my items” to “saved items,” redesigned the Call-To-Action buttons, and changed the UX copy of some features.
My Rationale: Changing the copy will make it familiar to users and increase engagement, users trust and engage more with apps that are consistent in design. Introducing CTAs makes important features prominent.
What was unexpected?
Saved posts usage between desktop and mobile users are significantly different, which presented a need for device-specific optimisations.
Discovering majority of the users rarely visited their saved posts posed a challenge of the need for this feature. However in understanding why this happens, I discovered the need for it and the opportunities LinkedIn stood to gain from it.
What did I learn?
These were the key insights and learnings, I gained from executing this project
User Behaviour: Understanding how users interact with saved posts provided insights into their content consumption priorities and patterns. Saved posts are context-specific and recognizing and designing for these contexts would drive up engagement.
Data-Driven Design Decisions: Analyzing usage patterns and feedback from LinkedIn volunteers showed me the importance of quantitative and qualitative data for feature optimization.
Scalability: LinkedIn caters to a global audience, so designing a universally effective solution taught me about scalability challenges.
Future integration points
Collaboration Tools: Let users create shared folders for saved posts, enabling teams or groups to curate and access relevant content collaboratively.
Follow-Up Updates: Notify users when saved job postings are about to expire or when similar opportunities arise. Alert users if saved articles or posts receive significant updates, like new comments or edits.
Results
4 months after I made a 3 part post, informing LinkedIn of this UX problem and my proposed solutions. There was an update to the mobile and desktop applications. However there is still room for improvements to be made on this feature update.
Increased User Engagement: Improved navigation and relevant recommendations encourage users to spend more time on the platform. More users would return to interact with their saved posts regularly due to better organization and reminders.
Content Sharing: Users would share saved posts more frequently, increasing the content's reach and visibility within the LinkedIn network. This would especially improve the reach on LinkedIn ads and improve conversion rates for users promoting ads on the LinkedIn platfrom.
Design spotlight
LinkedIn Saved Posts
Project
2023-2024
UX Designer
B2C
Overview
"Just give me... one second... to find the post I saved that better illustrates what I'm trying to show you. I'm sure I saved it here, somewhere"
Spoiler alert: It in fact did not take her a second; it took her 5 minutes.
I was meeting with a senior product designer who wanted to show me an example of a concept she wanted me to execute. She had saved the post on LinkedIn that sparked this idea and wanted to show me, but a user task that was meant to be a breeze turned out to be a treasure hunt - and it took her forever to find it. There and then I discovered a UX problem that I knew I had to take on.
Although the LinkedIn platform has greatly amassed over 930 million users in 200 countries, performing simple tasks such as finding saved posts is a herculean task. The placement and inconsistency of the copy and design used for this feature make finding it tedious.
After discovering this problem, I went ahead to make a poll to validate if other users had this issue.
From the data above and using surveys in addition, I discovered it was a problem other users had identified.
What were the usability issues I observed?
Difficulty in navigating to “my items” under the “Resources” section where the saved posts are.
Lengthy and inconsistent copy used in description texts.
What were the usability issues I observed?
Difficulty in navigating to “my items” under the “Resources” section where the saved posts are.
Lengthy and inconsistent copy used in description texts.
How did I solve these usability issues?
After getting information through user interviews and research I was able to come up with solutions based on the user insights I gathered.
Mobile solution
What I did: I redesigned the menu section to include the “Saved items” feature and removed it from the “Resources” section and removed the lengthy descriptions and introduced icons.
My Rationale: Making the saved items visible will increase the rate at which users revert to it.
Desktop solution
What I did: I changed the copy from “my items” to “saved items,” redesigned the Call-To-Action buttons, and changed the UX copy of some features.
My Rationale: Changing the copy will make it familiar to users and increase engagement, users trust and engage more with apps that are consistent in design. Introducing CTAs makes important features prominent.
What was unexpected?
Saved posts usage between desktop and mobile users are significantly different, which presented a need for device-specific optimisations.
Discovering majority of the users rarely visited their saved posts posed a challenge of the need for this feature. However in understanding why this happens, I discovered the need for it and the opportunities LinkedIn stood to gain from it.
What did I learn?
These were the key insights and learnings, I gained from executing this project
User Behaviour: Understanding how users interact with saved posts provided insights into their content consumption priorities and patterns. Saved posts are context-specific and recognizing and designing for these contexts would drive up engagement.
Data-Driven Design Decisions: Analyzing usage patterns and feedback from LinkedIn volunteers showed me the importance of quantitative and qualitative data for feature optimization.
Scalability: LinkedIn caters to a global audience, so designing a universally effective solution taught me about scalability challenges.
Future integration points
Collaboration Tools: Let users create shared folders for saved posts, enabling teams or groups to curate and access relevant content collaboratively.
Follow-Up Updates: Notify users when saved job postings are about to expire or when similar opportunities arise. Alert users if saved articles or posts receive significant updates, like new comments or edits.
Results
4 months after I made a 3 part post, informing LinkedIn of this UX problem and my proposed solutions. There was an update to the mobile and desktop applications. However there is still room for improvements to be made on this feature update.
Increased User Engagement: Improved navigation and relevant recommendations encourage users to spend more time on the platform. More users would return to interact with their saved posts regularly due to better organization and reminders.
Content Sharing: Users would share saved posts more frequently, increasing the content's reach and visibility within the LinkedIn network. This would especially improve the reach on LinkedIn ads and improve conversion rates for users promoting ads on the LinkedIn platfrom.