QworkedIn: A Concept
QworkedIn began as a design challenge—a rethinking of the user interface and design of the popular career-networking site, LinkedIn. As well as the incorporation of the brand personality and ideals of another organization. I'll give voice to my changes and thoughts, but two caveats first.
One: This was also an excuse to push the limits of CSS3. That being said, I can only guarantee positive results in Apple's Safari or Google Chrome. I'm still tweaking Firefox, and Internet Explorer comes with a 100% non-working guarantee. The site uses zero images for layouts, shadows, or gradients and employs CSS3 and HTML5.
That aside, you can visit QworkedIn here.
Two: I'm not claiming that this would be a better design for LinkedIn. I don't have access to their analytics, internal branding documents, or test results. So keep that in mind as you look through this. Everything is purely conceptual and exists in a vacuum, unlike real design.
That out of the way, the major change is a simplification of the primary interaction metaphor. LinkedIn is obviously structured around connections, then conversations. More of these two things mean more usage, more page views, more advertising, and greater impact. Currently, a lot of clutter stands in the way.
My proposal simplifies the navigation and page layout to include a stream of conversations, filterable by type. This allow a user to easily see and sort what his network is up to. (Major oversight in version 1: lack of a simple way for user to update their own status.) This strengthens already existing connections.
And new connections are focused on in the right-sidebar. The major change here is that advertisements are re-positioned as suggested brands and framed as connections. These ads would be served intelligently based on user-provided information. (Think The Deck, not Facebook ads, which are based on advertiser information.)
Atop each of these is an at-a-glance notification box. This makes the user feel like they're at home here. friendly copy, a large picture and customized alerts welcome the user upon log-in.
More ideas:
- Public and private pictures. Your private picture displays on your home page, public displays to others.
- Customized greetings and information based on time, date, etc.
- Gather optional extra information from user—favorite color, personality questions, etc. in a fun way, and alter their experience based on preference in the future
- Re-position search for more prominence
