LinkedIn Creative
A New LinkedIn Tool for Makers to Display Creative Projects

LinkedIn has secured itself as the de-facto job search social network. While LinkedIn is essentially a dynamic, hyperlinked resume, people in creative, technical, and craft-based industries are limited in the content they can showcase. Most often, these users will be forced to host any sort of visual, animated, or coded work on another website like a personal portfolio or Github Repository. 

For this design challenge, my team of four was tasked with creating a new tool for LinkedIn that would allow creatives to display projects, rich media, and more in a meaningful way, without relying on an external portfolio like Squarespace.

As the Interaction Lead of this project, I managed the team Figma file, directed UI, reviewed layout for consistency, and owned the prototype.

(Full research summary can be viewed here)

TIMELINE:

Aug 2023 — Sept 2023

TEAM:

Kimber-Lee Alston — Hybrid Teammate

Mahnaz Nasri — Research Lead

Sarah Shatto — Project Lead
Abby St. Claire — Interaction Design Lead

User Audience ︎︎︎
From Professional Non-Creative Recruiters to
Full-Time Artists

Our audience are across a spectrum ranging from professional non-creatives to full-time artists. We tried to pinpoint each specifc needs and frustrations to create a feature that caters to many different users.

Key Insights ︎︎︎
Users Want to Connect, Build Community, and Secure Job Opportunities

Once we interviewed 12 participants in creative and recruiting roles we gained an understanding of our potential users and identified their main needs.

Our creative users goals are: 

• To find inspiration
• To connect with other creatives
  

• To customize their portfolio
• To feel empowered by creative community
• To get feedback to improve skills
• To find aligned opportunities
• To get referrals for collaborations

Our recruiting users goals are:

• To find talents by browsing creative work samples
  
• To verify talents’ past professional history

Final Prototype ︎︎︎

When designing our new feature we oriented our solutions around our key insights; on creative talent discovery, portfolio viewing and customization, and connecting with community.

Home ︎︎︎
New Top Carosuel 

A new LinkedIn Creative carosuel at the top of the existing LinkedIn feed allows users to easily discover the new creative browse feature.

Browse ︎︎︎ 
Creative Feed Built for Discovery

Here users can explore work from creatives they follow as well as discover work from new artists via relevant filters.

Project View ︎︎︎
Displayed Media, Copy,
and Relevant Tags

Users can then click through to view the full details of the project.

The poster can include relevant project tags and can indicate whether or not they are welcoming new ideas from fellow creatives with a “Open to Collaboration” tag. 

Profile View ︎︎︎
Portfolio, Experience,
and Activity Tabs

Users can easily toggle between profile tabs to get a better understanding of the creative they are viewing.

Upload Modal ︎︎︎
Project Customization

Our project modal allows users to customize their portfolio with a variety of content, including text and photos.

Reflection︎︎︎
Communication for Creative Problem-Solving

Collaborating on my first UX design team project exposed me to diverse perspectives. The synergy within the group enhanced ideation at times and other times delayed problem-solving.

Communication and coordination were vital, and I learned the importance of clear, effective teamwork.

Together, we navigated the challenges and created a user-centered design that exceeded individual capabilities.