Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago · 3 min. reading time · ~10 ·

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2 1/2 Things I LIKE about LI's New Interface

2 1/2 Things I LIKE about LI's New Interface

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New LinkedIn NN

I try to see the best in all things. Sometimes it's difficult to see the bright side. Sometimes you really have to dig deep. Sometimes, it's like the new LinkedIn interface.

I get that Microsoft wants to use their own products to rebuild the platform. It makes good sense. They don't need to pay their own exorbitant licensing fees.

Microsoft, you aren't doing yourself any favors. The new interface is painfully slow.

On the plus side, it is prettier. Pretty, but slow.

That sounds like the punchline of a sexist joke.

As an aside, here's my favorite sexist joke. It manages to (possibly) offend all women, not just blondes.

A ventriloquist was onstage but failing badly until he started on "dumb blonde" jokes. The crowd reacted well, so he kept at it.
Finally, a blonde woman, stood up and screamed, "ENOUGH! I am sick and tired of you misogynistic asses and your persistent yet unfounded allegations of our stupidity simply based on our hair color. To classify an entire demographic as sub-par on that basis, and that basis alone is prepostrous, nay, ludicrous!"
The ventriloquist started stammering out an apology. The woman continued, even more upset.
"YOU SHUT UP! I'm talking to the little guy!"

Back to the post.

I had to look long and hard to find anything good to say about this interface. To me, pretty just isn't enough. 

It's not that I have anything against pretty things. It's just that I need more than that.

Do we really need the cutesy status bars showing page-load progress?

In this case, yes, we do. Otherwise, we may think that our browser crashed.

Progress bars let a user know that the site hasn't forgotten about him/her. Progress bars also slow down any already slow process.

Here's a hint. If you need progress bars, your site is too slow.

True, sometimes it can't be avoided. My own site, www.myTweetPack.com has many instances where I questioned whether I should add progress bars.

Those instances are in the App portion of the site, not the public-facing pages.

Sometimes the App does a ton of stuff in the background. Some actions can take 45 seconds or more to complete. Those usually involve repeated calls to Twitter servers to pull in data, or to search through multiple Twitter feeds (tens of thousands of tweets) for specific keywords.

I didn't use progress bars. I just warn my users that "this can take a while."

Progress bars actually slow down the slow process, unless they are just cutesy animated graphics with no relation to the actual progress. If so, why bother?

LinkedIn, you need a progress bar to just show the main page or a listing of articles?

Seriously?

You do realize this is 2017, right?

Still, I like to find the good in all things. 

After looking long and hard, I managed to find some.

Things I actually like about the new Interface

What? Did you think this article was just about bashing LinkedIn's interface? It's not. I really tried to embrace this pretty new interface. 

After all, "pretty" and "embrace" go so well together.

1 - Format for updates

I like the new format for updates. In the old interface, updates were a tiny little image with a bit of tickler text to the right of it. 

Many of us used a hack where we wrote the update and added a link to whatever. Then, we removed the system-generated image and tickler. Last, we added a 525X425px image to make our update pop.

That hack had some drawbacks. Yes, it would pop. But, the image wasn't linked to the article.

Now, updates have a bigger image and a smaller tickler. The image is not as big as what we used, but at least it links properly. 

That's a good trade-off.

We don't need the hack anymore.

2 - Menu bar

The sleek new menu bar makes it easier to get to notifications, new follows/connections, etc. Another great advantage is that you have plenty of time to refill your coffee while the page loads.

Now, you can go directly to, say, your notifications by just using https://www.linkedin.com/notifications/ in your address bar. That way you can avoid going through your main page to get to them.

After all, how much coffee should you really be drinking? 

It's nice of Microsoft/LinkedIn to think of our health. 

So few big companies nowadays do that.

3 - Main page

Again, sleek and well-laid out. Again, glacial in loading. I wonder how Google will react to this new interface. I seem to remember that page load time is a big part of Google's ranking algorithm.

I may be wrong. I'm not an SEO Guy.

Something about the main page confuses me.

Over on the left, you see how many profile views you had. That makes sense. Free plans limit how many of those you can actually see. Seeing a big number, but having no way to know who they are, may entice you to get a Premium membership.

Nope, been there, done that, canceled it. 

At least they aren't showing your LinkedIn Index there. That would be laughable. The index has a Name, but I can't be bothered to look it up. I think it was something like Social Selling Index (insert giggle here). 

It should have been called the Pay Us & Get a Higher Score So Others Will Think Better of You Index.

The main page also shows how many people viewed your most recent article.

That's what confuses me.

On one hand, it's right there, sitting in prime web page real estate. That would seem to imply that there is a new interest in promoting member-written content.

On the other hand, it's only for one article. . . and an unnamed one at that. I shudder to suggest listing a few articles with titles, let alone listing new comment numbers for each.

I would like the page to load on the day I ask for it. But, that's just me. Whadda I know?

On the third hand (?), they've done away with the option to subscribe to a member's articles. That would seem to imply that they are moving even further away from promoting member-written content.

So, which is it?

Enquiring minds want to know.

That is the extent of my Find-Good-Things-About-the-Interface investigation. 

Three things.

Or is it two-and-a-half?



Vr

 

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About the Author

Ts a ghost but not the kind that's into pottery wheels
Tis the writing kind

Toften wonder 1f I'm a tech-savvy writer or a wnt.
ing-savey technologist Maybe I'm both As one CMO
putt, “Paul makes tech my bitch!” That might be going

a little too far

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Comments

Robert Cormack

7 years ago #13

I'm finding social media in general is reducing our ability—and willingness— to trust. That might be a good topic for a post: "Have We Lost Our Ability to Trust?" The more sites like LinkedIn "play" with their viewership, the more we become cynical. It's like politics right now. Everyone talks about "true change" only to come back later, saying, "Well, true change is hard." Isn't it better to admit there is no real change then try to "gimmick" your way around it?

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #12

#21
Well, Robert Cormack, I'm a techie writer and it confuses the hell out of me too. More in the, "Why bother?" type of thing. I guess they are using cutesy to mask cutting off features, some paid for. That would be like me saying to all my paid members at www.myTweetPack.com, "Thanks for your payment, now watch all those cool things you paid for disappear." That's not in any definition of sound business practices I can find.

Robert Cormack

7 years ago #11

It just confuses the hell out of me, Paul \. My problem may be different than yours. I simply want to write, post, respond to comments and and comment on other posts. Anything that makes the process easy gives me more time to do that. Searching for things may appeal to techies—but obviously I'm not a techie (very few writers are, believe it or not). I want simple navigation, not a "fun" evening trying to figure out LinkedIn's interface features. I'd rather teach the dog to roll over (my accomplishments stand for all to consider).

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #10

#16
Hopefully, but I doubt it, Martin. Take a look at the page source and you will see a huge amount of superfluous stuff loading in the background. I too, liked that graph. LI seems to cut access to posts. I would wait until views dropped like a stone before posting the next one

Martin Wright

7 years ago #9

I know we are supposed to say something noce. But I must admit I miss the graphs showing readership of posts over a period. They let you know when a post had started to gain new readers. I also find the interface a lot slower. But I guess the look is so radically different they are still ironing out the bugs.

Dean Owen

7 years ago #8

Best joke I've seen in a long while, and I don't mean the LinkedIn interface.

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #7

#9
heheheheh

🐝 Fatima G. Williams

7 years ago #6

Sorta wanting to cook in the a movie kitchen. I had a burst of laughter there Deb. oh I love the way you guys just manage to make life seems so easy when LinkedIn's trying the opposite. And Paul \ That joke was insane. Thank God I'm not blonde 😂😂

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #5

#7
Lucky You!!!! Surprising considering you're in the DC area. Shhhh, don't tell anyone they missed you. Maybe you'll get to keep the old version
Thanks Paul \

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #3

Hey, I found another good thing. . . . We use the LinkedIn Update when we cross-post from myTweetPack. That means the new format will make them more useful

Laurent Boscherini

7 years ago #2

Thank you Paul \ for sharing your relevant post, so funny ! It takes persistence and perseverance to keep doing a difficult thing. Prettier, yes maybe, but not yet efficient as expected at that investment's level to setback leadship and profirability.

Paul "Pablo" Croubalian

7 years ago #1

#1
Three and a half if you count coffee refill time

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