Concept Project
Role: Lead UX/UI Designer
Team: UX Designers Kat Navales and Deepa Mohan
Timeframe: 4 weeks
A new feature for creative professionals to showcase their work on LinkedIn
The challenge
With 774+ million users around the world, LinkedIn has secured its place as the #1 professional social network.
However, LinkedIn's functionality —mostly centered around job seekers' résumés— limits the possibilities for creative professionals to showcase their work.
In order to increase retention of this particular type of user, our team explored and designed new features to help creatives prove their value to potential employers.
Note: This concept project was an educational exercise to practice UX skills and it is not affiliated to LinkedIn.
The Process
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User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Competitive Analysis
User Persona
User Journey
Problem Statement
HMW Questions
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Information Architecture
Sketches
Wireframes
User Interface Design
Mid-fidelity Prototype
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Usability Test
Design Iteration
High Fidelity Prototype
The outcome
A new section in the LinkedIn profile allows professionals in creative fields to add samples from their portfolios.
With relevant keywords and a project sorting feature, recruiters can easily view the work that is most pertinent to their talent search.
Research & Synthesize
User research
How do creatives go about showcasing their work?
To start this project, our team interviewed 4 creative professionals in the fields of design, illustration, video and architecture.
Our goal was to understand their preferences and challenges when it came to displaying their work in order to get hired.
What are recruiters looking for?
To get the full picture, we also talked to 2 hiring managers and 2 career coaches / former recruiters.
We wanted to identify what kind of information they payed most attention to when looking for creative talent.
Key Insights
The creative's point of view
I have a LinkedIn profile but I haven't updated it in years.
I browse for jobs on LinkedIn, but that's not where I’m actually getting hired.
My portfolio is essential to prove what I'm capable of, so I prefer more visual platforms to show my work.
I have to tailor my portfolio to highlight the projects that are most relevant to each specific job.
The recruiter's point of view
I search for candidates with a specific professional background and industry experience.
In a portfolio, I look at key skills and deliverables aligned with the job requirements, as well as the aesthetic and overall quality.
The idea of getting hired as a creative professional without a portfolio just isn't realistic.
LinkedIn is not the ideal platform for creatives, but it's still important to be there if you want to get hired.
User persona
The creative
Tina | 27 | Graphic Designer based in Bay Area
She specializes in branding and packaging design and needs to showcase her visual work.
She often curates her portfolio to show her best work and the projects that are most relevant for each client.
She wants to get noticed by the companies she’s interested in. She knows most of them use LinkedIn, but they've never hired her there.
She has found her clients mainly through personal contacts who then request to see her portfolio.
She prefers more visual platforms like Dribbble, Behance or Instagram.
Note: even though our research included the recruiter side, we chose to focus on the creative professionals journey for the scope of this project.
User journey
Scenario: Tina is looking for new job opportunities and knows that LinkedIn has a large database of potential employers. She would like to showcase her best portfolio pieces on her profile page, so that recruiters notice her for jobs that are the “right fit".
Problem Statement
Creative professionals are not able to properly showcase their work on LinkedIn and prove that they have the relevant skills to get hired.
As a result, they are missing out on the many opportunities that the world's largest professional social network has to offer.
HMW Questions
How might we
... show visual samples of work on LinkedIn?
... provide proof of specific skills and roles required for the job?
... help creatives tailor their portfolio and highlight the most relevant work samples?
Competitive Analysis
What is currently possible on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn users have two options to add media to their profiles:
On the Featured section: which combines posts, articles, links and media, with a title and description (270 characters). This section display only the top 2-3 posts.
On the Experience section: it is possible to add a small thumbnail under an entree, which expands to show a title and short description.
What other platforms do creatives use?
Both the creatives and the recruiters that we interviewed mentioned Behance and Dribbble as more popular alternatives to LinkedIn.
The main difference between them is that on Behance creatives can build a full portfolio page, while on Dribbble they can only show a few portfolio snippets or "shots".
On both platforms:
Media is king: The main focus is on the images, videos or animations. Behance also displays 3D and interactive prototypes.
The search criteria is tailored to creative industries: not only categorizing projects by discipline but also having the option to specify tools, color palettes, collaborators, licenses, etc.
Design patterns
LinkedIn's look and feel
In order to keep the user experience as consistent as possible, we analyzed LinkedIn's existing flows, visual style and naming conventions to incorporate them into our designs.
Design & Prototype
Key Insight
"As a designer, you're only as good as your portfolio. I can have all the experience or recommendations, but to get hired I need to show what I can do”.
Creative Professional
Solution 1
Adding a project sample on your profile
For creatives, displaying their work visually was essential. However, when talking to recruiters, they said they wouldn't expect to see a full portfolio directly on LinkedIn.
So, we chose to design a feature to add portfolio samples, that could then link elsewhere if someone wanted to see more.
As drawn from our Competitive Analysis, each project would include fields to describe the work and to highlight the skills recruiters typically look for, i.e. roles, tasks and tools.
Task flow 1
1. The creative professional clicks Add section
2. Selects Add portfolio sample
3. Fills out the form fields
4. Clicks Save to upload a project sample onto their profile
Key Insight
"I tailor my portfolio to show work that is relevant to each job that I'm applying for”.
Creative Professional
Solution 2
Designing a way to choose which projects show up first
We wondered if there was a way to adjust the order in which these projects would appear and if it could be tailored to the person who viewed the profile.
Our first iteration on this idea was a sort menu, where the viewer could choose which projects showed up first:
Highlighted (the creative's favorites projects)
Most recent
Best match*
*This last option would use LinkedIn's algorithm to find if the viewer's and the creative's profiles had anything in common, i.e. showing projects from related industries first.
Task flow 2
1. The user viewing the creative's profile chooses the project sorting option from a dropdown menu
2. Clicks to view a portfolio sample
3. Reads the project's basic information
4. Has the option to click to view the full project outside of LinkedIn, or
5. Closes pop-up window to return to profile.
Test & Iterate
Usability Test
What did the users think?
We designed a mid-fidelity prototype and tested it with 4 users in creative fields, obtaining the following results:
4/4 located the “Add portfolio sample” option in less than a minute.
4/4 thought the Portfolio section was effectively placed on the profile (as a separate section above Experience section).
3/4 were unsure about the difference between highlighted and best match sorting.
3/4 suggested improvements to the labels on the project form.
2/4 suggested utilizing the space better on the project view layout.
Hi-Fi Prototype
Thanks to the user's feedback, we iterated our design by:
adjusting the fields in the project upload form, i.e. renaming "team" as "team members" or simplifying the project timeframe to indicate just the year.
redesigning the layout in the project view, to better utilize the space.
Concept Iteration
Rethinking the sorting feature
The usability test revealed that the project sorting feature as a dropdown menu caused some confusion.
In the new approach, creatives can modify and rearrange the projects in their Portfolio section, having the option to:
Edit or hide a particular project
Choose which projects show up as the top 6 on their profile
Drag and rearrange projects in the desired order
Tick an optional checkbox that allows potential employers to view first the projects that are most relevant to their search, overriding the default order.
Our iterated design brings us closer to a solution, where creatives have an automated way to tailor their portfolio for potential employers, and companies can quickly find the talent they are searching for.
Next steps
With the new high fidelity prototype, we would need to conduct a second test with both creatives and recruiters, in order to:
Creatives
Test how creatives interact with the new project sorting feature.
Confirm that naming conventions are clear and concise.
Recruiters
Analyze how effective new portfolio sample is when recruiters view pertinent information about the creative.
Determine any missing information recruiter still needs in order to hire candidate.