LinkedIn Rolls Out New Visual Design For Profiles

Professional social network LinkedIn has started rolling out re-designed profile pages to its 175 million members.

Users can sign up for the “visual design” by requesting to be added to the waiting list. The feature will be gradually applied to all members in the near future.

LinkedIn claims that the new design will make the network more useful and allow users to tell their “professional story” more easily.

New LinkedIn Profiles For All

“We’re excited to share that we’ve just launched the next generation LinkedIn Profile, making it easier for our 175 million members to tell their professional stories, be found for opportunities, and build relationships through meaningful interactions,” said Aaron Bronzan, product manager at LinkedIn. “Over the next few months, all LinkedIn members will start to see their profiles in the new look and feel.”

The new visual style of the profile is intended to make a more powerful first impression and better showcase the skills, experience and accomplishments of the account holder.

Recent activity tab has been moved the top of a users’ profile, making it easier to see what the connected members have been doing, while a new ‘insights bar’ on the right aims to make it easier to discover people and opportunities outside users’ existing network.

Last month, LinkedIn introduced skill endorsements with a view to replacing recommendations. The company will be hoping that this latest overhaul will convince those users that were put off by a security breach in June that the network is worth sticking with.

More than 6.5 million passwords were stolen in the attack and although they were protected with SHA-1 hashes, there was no salting, meaning the hackers were able to crack some of the login details. LinkedIn has confirmed that the password theft cost it between $500,000 and $1 million.

Facebook rolled out a radical overhaul of its profile pages last December. The visually-oriented Timeline profile was forced on the users, many of whom were upset at the phasing out of the traditional design.

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