LinkedIn launched a redesign of their site today. It incorporates a new navigation structure and looks more like a social site that before. Something significant to notice is the tabbed structure which has been replaced with a left navigation. I blogged about how Amazon made this change with their redesign as well.

LinkedIn Before

LinkedIn After

The tab metaphor seems to be going away in contemporary web design. Perhaps because tabbed navigation doesn’t make good usability sense. According to Jakob Nielsen:

Tabs should be used to alternate between views within the same context not to navigate to different areas

Overall I prefer the new design. I think it’s a clean interface that “borrows” layout geography from Facebook (which is good for user’s of both sites but not so much for the Facebook design team)

One think that does seem to bother me though is the shadow on the left navigation

If there is a shadow left and right at the bottom shouldn’t there also be a shadow in the valley?