Facebook isn’t the only site undergoing major changes that directly affect users this week. LinkedIn is rolling out its new site design, with an emphasis on usability and navigation for easier and more engaging access to one’s account. While LinkedIn’s major changes are regarding the look and feel of the site as opposed to Facebook’s ongoing modification of its privacy settings for users, the dedication to end users’ needs is what makes these sites’ changes stand out.

Ease of use appears to be rather important for LinkedIn moving forward. In previous updates and feature releases we’ve seen growing similarities between LinkedIn improvements and page formats used by Facebook. Taking cues from successful social networks for the organization around its pages indicates that LinkedIn would like to further engage users and keep them around on the site. As LinkedIn also centers the bulk of its activity on social interactions between contacts, focusing on navigation and usability is key for LinkedIn moving forward.

Other initiatives for improving LinkedIn’s site have largely focused on enhancing the distribution methods for information regarding a particular contact. updating and alerting you to activity taking place within your actual network became crucial for LinkedIn, as the update trend took off with the popularity of Twitter and Facebook News feeds.

Of great importance to LinkedIn is to find the best ways in which to facilitate easy account management and correspondence between contacts. Even as LinkedIn has had to follow suite of certain trends and designs, the professional social network has managed to stay in the limelight despite the dominance of Facebook, its overtaking of previous stronghold MySpace, and the growing popularity of Twitter.

With the provision of a tool that individuals could latch onto in times of economic turmoil and strife, LinkedIn proved itself time and time again as a web-based service that could help people get through the hard times. Even as Facebook became another hub for professional networking, the continued focus on its core competencies gave LinkedIn a familiar an stable environment for actual social networking.

The current changes found in LinkedIn’s updated website still reflect this mantra, and users seem to be increasingly appreciative of LinkedIn as a result.