The world’s most popular video sharing site YouTube has undergone a facelift recently with owners Google deciding the time was right for an overdue make-over. Consensus amongst Google’s YouTube hierarchy was that “less is definitely more” this time round after last year’s rather over-the-top, feature heavy efforts. Recognising the fact that they went overboard with their last attempt at an upgrade/makeover, they felt time was ripe to sit back, take stock and deliver something that users of the site would enjoy rather than find cumbersome and too “in-your-face”.
Videos are being given prominence (about time seeing that YouTube is actually a video-orientated site) on the page with changes that include a larger default size as well as an option for widescreen viewing. The “clutter” that used to be found with such abandon dotted around the page can now be found with one click of the mouse thanks to a new dropdown interface.
One of the main redesign features is a simpler discovery process. As such, the right hand side of any page on the YouTube website is dedicated to showing “videos you may be interested in viewing” based on a much smarter suggestion algorithm which takes into consideration how you actually located the video you are currently viewing in the first place. As well as this, the actual channel name in addition to the “subscribe” tab are now located at the top of the video which will make them that much more accessible to users.
Another feature that has a new interface is the playlist and this can now be expanded or skipped forward thanks to a new “next” tab. Saving playlists has now become a much more easier process and “favourites” has now become the default option.
The ratings system has undergone a radical change as well – gone is the old star rating system and in came the much more easy to use thumbs up/thumbs down, aka “like/dislike” rating system. The main reason for this is because due to specific testing YouTube carried out, they discovered that almost ninety percent of users chose five stars for their average ratings. This would ultimately affect the true rating of a video because while some videos had hundreds, or even thousands of rating, others would only have one or two yet still be pertained as being a “popular” video. Based on this information they decide that it would make things easier all round if they just introduced a simple “like/dislike” rating system, allowing users to make their decisions on what to watch by a cursory quick glance at the thumbs up or thumbs down.
The new right hand column offers additional choices for a better user experience as well. Now, for example, if a user watches a particular music video, YouTube is now able to offer a mix of music based on the genre of the music currently being played, or the preferences of the individual user.
