Consumer
UX Framework
Project Role
Design Lead
Timeline
Feb - Apr '24
Partners
Product Manager
3 Engineers
LinkedIn’s feed nudges were often ignored due to their lack of relevance. We optimized them with a streamlined, goal-oriented framework, refining user targeting and design to boost engagement and improve the overall feed experience.
DISCOVER
LinkedIn Users
On LinkedIn, which is a professional social media based platform, we target varouse user who have different goals on the Feed. The overlapping goals are to discover content, find opportunities, and grow their networks on the platform.
CAREER STARTERS
Build a strong foundation for my career.
CAREER ACCELERATORS
Make progress toward a meaningful and fulfilling career
ESTABLISHED LEADERS
Leverage my expertise to help others and have a fulfilling career
What's a nudge and why didn't they work on LinkedIn?
A nudge in the UI guides users toward specific actions, whether directly (liking a post) or indirectly (pausing on a post). Ideally, nudges prompt users to take the next relevant step.
Nudges are not relevant for people's goals, so most of the time, they are ignored
Nudges are overwhelmingly everywhere, creating a messy experience with no focus
Nudges vary in design and built in silos, leading to a confusing, inconsistent UI
OPPORTUNITY
How might we improve the nudges so that they're useful and people intentionally choose to interact with it?
DEFINE
Defining UX Principles
I collaborated with PM to define UX principles that guided our framework, focusing on the goals nudges aimed to solve. These principles became key in our decision-making and final output.
Initial Nudge Designs
Auditing use cases
I conducted an audit of all feed nudges to better understand the various use cases across the feed. Since these nudges were developed by different teams, it was essential to gain clarity on their implementation and the rationale behind the design choices.
1. Nudge types
After analyzing each use case, I proposed nudge types to consolidate each use case. We categorized nudges into subtle, implicit, and direct groups to classify them by how disruptive they can be to a user's experience, and in effect, defining how often they should be used.
SUBTLE
Uses motion/visuals to highlight UI elements within a feed post
IMPLICIT
Adds existing elements onto feed post that can prompt actions more implicitly
DIRECT
Adds new elements of prescriptive text and direct CTAs
Nudge triggers
We defined triggers to the nudges —dwell, action, or always-on—to refine the nudge experience based on user interaction and help establish characteristics to when nudges would appear.
DWELL
Appears after user stays on a post for a period of time (8s)
ACTION
Appears after user takes an explicit action on a post
ALWAYS ON
Always present on post and must be highly relevant
TEST
Testing and Experimentation
We gained insights into user perceptions of our different types of nudges through market research and UXR. We wanted to know if there were differences in terms of clarity and sentiment of the nudge types. Additionally, we also nudges in production, allowing us to understand user behaviors around timing, copy, cool off periods and more.
Research Takeaways
1
Nudges were equally discoverable and clear — there was no statistically significant difference between them
2
Iterate on the copy of the nudges to communicate value (educating on the social/functional benefits)
3
Most users wouldn't mind nudges if they are aligned appropriately with their goals (i.e. getting a job)
STRATEGY
Framework Building
Based on these insights, we started to build the framework around nudges. I stressed the importance of precise targeting, which required extra technical effort and team buy-in. With success, we moved forward in this direction, allowing us to further refine the system.
Rules and Exceptions
We defined various rules to guide the system's logic and cover existing use cases. I worked closely with the PM to address these edge cases and with the intention to create a flexible, structured set of rules and exceptions for our engineering team to build into the logic.
END POINT
Final Solution
Our final solution was a long-term strategy for displaying nudges on the feed.
A single system
We developed a framework with built in logic, rules, and cool-off periods to accurately determine when, where, and to whom and which nudges should appear, effectively creating a better nudge UX for users on the feed.
Consolidated visual design
Updates to the nudge component to encompass additional use cases and consolidate the behavior and visual design.
Guidelines and documentation
I created guidelines to help broader teams implement the framework effectively as a self serve system.
REFLECTION
Lessons learned
Advocating for users in weeds of the business
Despite initial resistance from PM and engineering, I advocated firmly for the inclusion to targeting the right users, demonstrating that effective nudging relies on precise targeting. This experience strengthened my design advocacy skills and reinforced the alignment of user benefits with business goals.
Being a strategically partner
I developed a deep understanding of the strategic logic behind user experience, which guided how users interacted with nudges and shaped the integration of use cases into the feed. This involved anticipating edge cases and creating flexible rules that balanced both existing and new scenarios.
End of case study.