YouTube now has a new look and a new logo for the first time in 12 years. YouTube has recently rolled out a series of updates in which its overall material design & some UI/UX features are greatly enhanced. There is a mixed reaction from the crowd musing on its new design. So we decided to write a blog post on the new UI features, upcoming ones, and the ones that got dumped. Let’s dive in.
New features:
- The header is white instead of old bright cherry red, this lets content to take the lead. The navigation tabs are now clearly labeled and moved to the bottom of the app so they’re closer to your thumbs & easily accessible.
- New dark mode for the desktop version.
- A new library tab that gives you easy access to what you’re looking for. Your videos (e.g. playlists, watch history, uploads) are in the library section. Accounts and setting tabs can be located from the profile icon at the top. In the earlier version, both library and account tabs were under the account menu.
- Speed up and slow down the playback of a video on the mobile app. (Earlier, available only on Desktop version.)
- A feature that lets you view a row of suggested videos while you’re watching in full screen.
Upcoming:
As stated in the official Youtube blog,
- A feature that lets you jump between videos with a simple swipe of your hand: just swipe left to watch a previous video or swipe right to watch the next one.
- The YouTube player will soon seamlessly change shape to match the video format you’re watching, such as vertical, square or horizontal. Imagine watching vertical videos with no black bars on the sides! (Thank God !)
What’s missing?
- Swipe gesture – swipe sideways to switch tabs between home > trending > subscribed>Accounts. This is a great miss. Swiping was much easier and user-friendly, taking it away is a pit fall in UX.
- Chromecast feature, there is no Chromecast icon at all. (Come on, really? Demoting your own product)
- The absence of dark mode in the mobile app.
People took to review forums and twitter to express their views, here are a few,
There were also some good ones,
Here is what YouTube Chief Product Officer, Neal Mohan had to say,
“YouTube’s evolved … a lot. And we’re not even close to done. Over the last few months, we’ve started releasing updates and will continue to throughout the rest of the year.”
We understand updating humongous sites like YouTube is not an easy job, but remember, with great user base comes great responsibilities.
Let’s hope to see existing issues and concerns get fixed and better updates roll out in near future.
Happy YouTubing.
