YouTube does something fresh for the users. It announced on Wednesday that soon users can have access to a new modified YouTube homepage, users can opt in to using the new format to be loaded with new features within the next six weeks. The new look comes after a year of planning with two reasons. First, it provides a cleaner UI that’s more passive, stripped down and straightforward than before; according to a blog post by Yahoo designer Julian Frumar and software engineer Igor Kofman. Second, it’s designed to improve the site’s stickiness by getting visitors to watch more videos. Even they are trying on to lengthen the time users can stay on the site.
The new inventions also have something in store for the video owner. Those who have created other videos, will be shown up on the top of the page without cluttering up the sides with a countless of thumbnails and links. YouTube is also giving content owners a way to add branding, be it a profile picture or a logo above each video player, regardless of whether that user is screening that video from a satisfied owner’s channel page. The company hopes this will incite more subscriptions, and give users a better sense of who made it.
In an interview, Shiva Rajaraman, senior product manager at Google, stated, “the intent is to get users to watch sessions of videos rather than just one video. For example, users that arrive at a page via a search will see those search results continued down the right hand side, so that they can continue exploring the site even as the video begins playing. According to YouTube, users watch an average of 15 minutes of videos on the site per day. That’s small potatoes compared to generic television, where users watch several hours. The solution to this was simplify the page. We’re trying to merge information in one place, and hide actions that aren’t critical.”
Thus two months after entering beta, YouTube’s video page redesign is also finally ready to re-apper for its users.
Tags: generic television, google, new features, youtube