YouTubes Makeover Seeks To Amp Up Engagement

YouTube rolled out an entirely new design to video pages – aimed at increasing engagement. Igor Kofman and Shiva Rajaraman of YouTube wrote that the design gets back to the “reason why you came to YouTube in the first place — the video — and all the ways you engage with content and creators.”

YouTubes new redesign – an overview

Below are 6 screen shots followed by a video tour of the new design.

The Uploader – It’s now easier to subscribe to a user and see all the videos. In the example below, the user (thebionicle43) has uploaded 16 videos. Clicking on the double-down arrow expands a view of these videos.

Video Size – You can now make a video wider or expand to full screen view.

Thumbs Up Or Down – Following Facebooks “like” example, YouTube has trashed it’s 5-star rating system in exchange for a simple “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” rating. This will be much easier for you to see which videos people prefer, and who prefers them!

Favorites and Playlists – YouTube has simplified the process of marking a video as a favorite or adding it to a playlist. A single “Save To” button enables either choice.

Sharing – Posting on Twitter and Facebook is now much easier for viewers. This means that it’s even more important for nonprofits to develop a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Underbar - The sidebar vloggers used to point to on the right-hand side? Now it’s collapsed under the video. Again, the intention here is to make the video page uncluttered.

A quick tour:

Also check out the overview of these changes from YouTube.