Site: Youtube (new look)

by Chris on 19 April 2010

youtube.com It's Newtube, a New look youtube! #ep15

More like this

Video and film reviews

From the podcast

Pros

Newtube

So what’s different? The first thing you will notice is the very stripped back approach to the visual design.

There is now a one giant advert at the top, which isn’t as bad as it sounds as with more space there is now a chance for flash based animations and generally bigger crisper images, instead of lots of different ads all screaming for you attention.

The youtube logo is smaller allowing titles to come up the page with everything else giving more content above the fold (nice!)

The homepage is now broken into different sections ‘spotlight’ which seems to pull in relevant news stories, currently featuring that pesky puffing volcano that seems to be troubling the airways around europe. Then you have ‘catch up on the latest tv’, which suggests it could be a prominent feature in the future with on demand tv ‘so hot right now’.

On the video page again the white and clean ‘googley’ look has been applied removing the star rating system which has been replaced by the facbook ‘like’ thumbs up thumbs down.

The user profile is one of the many sections on the page to have been zipped up to save space which we think is a good call, as previously the page was getting pretty messy. The button above the total views reveals a whole host of graphs and stats for those who love their data! (not as nerdy as it sounds, very interesting stuff have a look!)

Good work!

Cons

Noobtube

One of Matt’s concerns was youtube was loosing a bit of it’s identity/usability and it might not be long until Gootube is the new name on everyones lips….

Video thumbnails have all been reduced in size :( we never like to see images get smaller, but this is probably down to saving space and offering more ‘related’ videos per page

There is a strange little 3 x 3 ad grid, claiming money off stuff like Mcdonalds, Zara, Boots, etc which is probably more hassle than it’s worth and looks a bit well, tacky/desperate.

Comment space has been reduced tidying up the page nicely, but that does lend itself to creating a massive empty space below as the related videos on the RHS go all the way to the bottom, so if the video hasn’t had much action then the page looks unfinished.

Matt has not been so easy to convince but I’m pleased with the re-fresh as it was looking a bit myspace.

Comments & social