Redesigning LinkedIn’s Header Bar
Every now again a redesign comes along and you love it (or not). Sometimes redesigns can have a nagging effect and the brain starts shouting “I want to make this look better!” I had this experience lately with LinkedIn. Although I don’t use it that much I didn’t see the recent redesign as a huge step forward so I took a stab at making some improvements.
The criteria
- The layout had to be somewhat similar to the current layout
- The goal was simply to improve the design visually
- I gave myself two hours
Changes I made
I’m a firm believer that everything that is personal to the user such as their profile, settings, mail etc. should all be in the same place. One of the first things I did was to condense this information. The second thing I did was condense the search bar a little bit and put the search options in a drop-down, integrated into the search box itself.
Visually I brought back some of the LinkedIn blue that reinforced their branding and included some icons to go along with what is now a long line of links. Overall this lightened things up a bit and (for me personally) made it much more appealing to look at.
Here is the Result (Close Ups)
Redesigned Header Bar
The Current LinkedIn Header
OK, now back to solving some larger problems, feel free to leave your thoughts in a comment!
Update!
Been getting some great feedback that I wanted to share. Thanks everyone!
- “Very nice! Big improvement on what they have now.” (Yooka)
- “Great job there, I can’t stand the current header, it’s dark and cluttered.” (F. Matis)
- “Gorgeous. Fantastic work.” (D. Klein)
- “Jess, think this is a huge improvement.” (M. Liao)
- “LinkedIn would be well served by hiring you immediately.” (M. Birch)
