Bringing LinkedIn Learning to Mobile

LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented online platform that operates via websites and mobile apps. It is primarily used for professional networking and career development, allowing users to find jobs, connect with people and discover business opportunities.

Before being bought by Microsoft in 2016, LinkedIn acquired our customer Lynda.com in 2015 which has then been merged and renamed LinkedIn Learning in 2017. LinkedIn Learning has meanwhile become one of the largest online learning platforms with on-demand video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative and business skills.

Working with one of Silicon Valley‘s biggest tech companies certainly presents its own set of challenges, but it also creates new opportunities. For instance, many companies choose not to make accessibility a priority due to budgetary reasons, but one of our many jobs for LinkedIn was to make their apps accessible to all audiences. Furthermore, it was exciting not only to see what daily routines at of one of Silicon Valley’s big players look like but also to get to know their development stack.

At the time, we didn’t expect that LinkedIn, the owner of our former client Lynda.com and video2brain, would also be bought out soon. Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn imposed a new set of challenges for us but we maintained our relationship with the new owner and used our knowledge from developing online learning platforms for more than ten years to help LinkedIn with their iOS and Android apps. By contributing with the talent of four of our best mobile developers, we became an extension of LinkedIn’s own mobile team.

We put together an agile team of committed engineers who travelled regularly to San Francisco and Mountain View. During almost 2 years of working on this project our app development included various stages and features implementation. After initial app conception & consulting, we started with core Android & iOS development and integrated Android databinding. After that, we developed an Android video player, integrated the option of offline viewing the courses and improved the app accessibility. We proceeded with automated tests, implemented tracking as well as Android & iOS assessments and chapter quizzes which allow users to check in with their learning and see what they’ve retained. After that we introduced learning paths, i.e., compiled playlists of related video courses on a specific topic or career track. These include multiple courses by different expert instructors to teach a variety of skills and information associated with a particular subject or profession. And last, but not least, we enabled in-app-purchases.