LinkedIn recently designed their LinkedIn Today section to include more (much needed) social features.  Users are now able to add comments to articles as well as “like” them.  A new feature was also added; “Trending in Your Network” which is a tab that filters all professional news articles across LinkedIn today and displays the most popular articles within your professional network.

In addition to the recent redesign, LinkedIn also introduced a new homepage which is starting to roll out to users.   Their blog stated that the new redesign is “a simpler and easier way to navigate Homepage experience that offers quick access to relevant information and updates that help you be great at your job.”

The redesign features a nicely polished black bar at the top of the page, allowing you to easily control navigation.  The content itself has also been spruced up and reorganized to include lots of nice white space and classy logos and icons.  Comparing the two designs, the structure itself seems to have remained the same, with the placement of “People You May Know” and “Jobs You May Be Interested In” remaining in their current positions.

The feed you are used to seeing will now feature lots of relevant updates.  Some have said the new feed style is suspiciously similar to Facebooks newsfeed.  At any rate, an improved newsfeed will be a big step up for LinkedIn as the past feed quality has been pretty low.  I know I am looking forward to seeing less of “so and so made a new connection” and more status updates and shared articles!

While this update promotes, and has added some excellent usability features, the new design is evidence that LinkedIn seems to be transforming from its traditional resume network to a content sharing and curation platform.  This is an important move for LinkedIn, and will no doubt increase engagement throughout the site.

LinkedIn