LinkedIn's website is getting a fresh new design — here's your first look (MSFT)

By: Business Insider

January 19, 2017 at 09:00 AM EST

If you log on to LinkedIn's website today, you might notice that things are a little ... different.

The Microsoft-owned company is calling it the "largest LinkedIn.com redesign since the company's inception." It takes a lot of the look and feel of the LinkedIn apps for iPhone and Android and brings it back to the website.

Here's your first look at the new LinkedIn website — and a bit about why the company thinks it'll get you to be more "confident" when you go out looking for jobs and new networking opportunities.

(And if you don't have it right away, don't worry, LinkedIn says the new look is going out in waves, with most people getting it on Thursday morning.)

Before we dive in, take one last look at the old LinkedIn homepage. LinkedIn Senior Director of User Experience Design Amy Parnell says her team kept getting one piece of feedback: Users were overwhelmed by the interface. "They weren't sure what to do."LinkedIn

People would create a profile (like this old-style profile page here), fill it up ... and then never use it again, because it wasn't clear what LinkedIn was "for."LinkedIn

Enter the new LinkedIn homepage. It's designed to be simple and clean, so you can get to the most common things you might be trying to do, quickly. The bar across the top that shows you actions you can take is more prominent than in the old design.LinkedIn

Messaging on LinkedIn gets a big upgrade, too, to look and feel a lot more like Facebook Messenger. Now, if you're clicking around the site, you can keep a conversation going in the lower-right corner. "You can be on task,” Parnell says, and “also be in a conversation with anyone.”LinkedIn

Profiles have gotten a facelift, too. In addition to the new design, LinkedIn is introducing new ways to gently suggest how to improve your profile, calling out factors, like adding a killer headshot, that make you look more attractive to recruiters. It's more subtle and less patronizing than the old-style bars that told you how complete your profile was on a 100-point scale.LinkedIn

See the rest of the story at Business Insider