Mike B. Moore, Head of Growth www.trychameleon.com

June, 2016

LinkedIn Teardown: First time user experience

Find out how users get onboard at the world’s largest social-business-network-recruiting-thought-leadership-education app.

EXPERIENCE (What’s the user context, where are they in the journey?)

We’re coming into LinkedIn as a first time user that is beyond the initial setup screens. We’re ready to start exploring and using LinkedIn for the first time.

GOALS (What are we, as users hoping to accomplish?)● Show me how to use LinkedIn● Help me setup my profile● Join a group and share an update

AUDIENCE (Who are the people using this application and for what purpose?) ● Business networking - groups, connections, content ● Self-promotion - profile, updates ● Recruiting & job seeking - jobs postings, talent scouting and education

No focus on the tooltip. It’s difficult to get our attention when it’s not animated, highlighted or shrouded against the backdrop.

Copy isn’t concise, It’s your first chance to engage your users so they don’t hate your walk-through “It’s easier” is confusing, am I a return user?

What’s being highlighted isn’t actionable.People learn by doing, showing someone their own name with a coachmark may result in your tooltips being closed out.

Use of icons or images conveys purpose, additionally it makes tooltips more interesting and noticeable.

Dots tell length of tour. Our first tip shows us that we’re stepping through a series..

Copy length is good, one sentence is about the level of patience most people have.

Call-to-action is simple and clear and positioned lower right.

Our coachmark isn’t focused on an action area rather it’s focused on the section header.

Copy is confusing and should be specific to a single action not a group of actions.

What’s the value of the completed action? Is adding a school the most important actionable step for LinkedIn users to take to move them toward an activated state?

Tooltip is not in order (top to bottom) This tip displays before bringing us up the page for the next tip.

Tour navigation is helpful especially when moving through a more complicated application or long series of tours.

Clearly highlighted and actionable section Showing and asking us to take a step helps us feel like we’re gaining momentum.

Copy is actionable and guides us to take actionable steps like “share”. Additionally the voice is targeted at us, the person,

This feature is important and a great opportunity to highlight this the tooltip using a shroud or animation.

Actionable button is highlighted very clearly by the tooltip and aligned to the center of the button.

Copy is crystal clear we know what happens when we click this button and we know where to find it next time.

Supporting information is missing. Including a link to a support article or video would help explain this complex toggle.

Call-to-action button is wrong. “Done” has an arrow, this should be a completed state.

Alignment issues with the tooltip, not quite on center of the object, not quite close enough, just floating near its target.

An important and actionable area is being highlighted. This is a place I’ll remember and can take action.

Activation Event

GOAL: Show me how to use LinkedInLinkedIn’s first time tour showed us the location of a few key features but most certainly did not leave us feeling like we know how to use LinkedIn.

GOAL: Help me setup my profileWhile our tour showed us where to add our educational information, they didn’t really help us make it through our profile setup.. Simple steps like adding our photo, and our current job were missed.

GOAL: Share an update or tell others that I’ve arrived on LinkedInWe joined LinkedIn to network with like-minded professionals in our industry and share our business experiences with a community of professionals that does the same thing that we do (groups!) we left feeling lost.

GOALS (What are we, as users hoping to accomplish?)

● Show me how to use LinkedIn● Help me setup my profile● Share an update or tell others that I’m on LinkedIn

Establishing goals for a first time user experience, super duper importantFollowing a storyline with a consistent end goal will make the FTUX (that’s a fancy acronym for first time user experience) more memorable and far more effective. Focus your goals around one narrative whether that be “setting up”, “using”, “completing your profile”. Don’t intermingle those stories.

Highlight actionable sections and make copy conciseWithin your story you should focus on highlighting areas of action that help tell usher users toward goals. Highlighting sections out of context or mentioning features or functions outside the storyline will confuse people. Use copy that specifically asks people to try, do and act. Use more conversational or “human” copy, even in a business application we’re people not machines—talk to us, not at us.

Reward us for being a part of your storyWe made it through your story, now that we’re armed with knowledge about how to use LinkedIn, ask us to take a final step that ties together everything that we’ve learned. It’ll not only make us have that “Aha” moment it’ll also make us excited to use the product.

Key takeaways from LinkedInW

all o

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