My Role

Lead UX Designer

Duration

June 2022

Figma

Tools Used

Empathize

Background Research
User Interviews
Competitive Analysis

Ideate

Feature Prioritization
User Flows
Site Mapping

Create

Low-fi Wireframes
Defining UI
Prototyping
Building

Verify

User Testing
Iterating
Hand-off

Overview

My Role

Lead UX Designer

Duration

June 2022

Figma

Tools Used

Empathize

Background Research
User Interviews
Competitive Analysis

Ideate

Feature Prioritization
User Flows
Site Mapping

Create

Low-fi Wireframes
Defining UI
Prototyping
Building

Verify

User Testing
Iterating
Hand-off

Overview

Background

Since early in 2021, YouTube has invested heavily in its live streaming platform by offering contracts to popular streamers to stream exclusively on YouTube. By bringing big-name streamers to its platform, it hopes to draw more viewers and compete with the industry leader, Twitch, as well as the growing platform Facebook Gaming.

As a somewhat-regular live stream viewer, I enjoy watching streams on both Twitch and YouTube. But though I generally prefer the UI and brand of YouTube over that of Twitch, I’ve been frustrated by the layout and design that they’ve used in their approach to live streaming.

In order for YouTube to capture a significant segment of the live streaming market, they need to massively improve how they organize streaming content and suggest it to new users. I took it upon myself to redesign YouTube to better highlight and integrate live streaming into its platform.

Challenge

YouTube’s current layout makes it very difficult for new users to discover YouTube live, and doesn't allow existing users to browse through categories or filter their searches.

Research and Goal Setting

I also carefully examined how Youtube currently handles its live streaming content to clarify the particular frustrations that I have had as a user, and develop a set of goals for how I think the site should look.

I took a look at the three major players in online live streaming to develop my understanding of the unique advantages and disadvantages YouTube has in relation to Twitch and Facebook. In particular, Twitch stands out as a dedicated streaming platform. Everyone on Twitch is there to watch livestreams, whereas YouTube and Facebook users might be on the site for a variety of reasons.

This is both an advantage and disadvantage for YouTube Live: it has a much larger, easily accessible user base from which to draw from; however, it needs to be careful not to interfere with the experience of users who aren’t interested in streaming.

Key Discoveries

1. Isolate and Integrate

YouTube is a massive site that includes far more content than just live streaming. In order for live streaming to avoid being covered up by enormously popular videos, it needs to be isolated from traditional YouTube content. However, in order to access the large existing user base that primarily watches videos, live streaming must also be integrated with video content.
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Goal: The new layout should create a separate "YouTube Live" page that isolates live streaming from video content. However, live streams should continue to show up in recommendations and trending, alongside videos.

2. Create a Central Hub

YouTube live streams presently exist all over the site. Users can find them by clicking the "Live" filter on their home page, or by heading to "Explore," or by going to the "Gaming" page and sorting through different game titles. But despite all of these different avenues to find streams, there is no central page that allows user to browse through categories of different types of streams.
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Goal: My YouTube redesign should have a live page that centralizes and contains all live streaming videos, then use categories to encourage browsing and make discovery easy.

3. Stick with What Works

YouTube already has an established and accepted brand. There's no need to spend time worrying about developing any new UI components; instead, I should remain consistent with existing components and focus on improving the user experience.
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Goal: The new website should perfectly match with existing YouTube UI to create a cohesive experience.

Turning Sketches Into Designs

With my goals decided and a clear vision of what the new YouTube Live could look like, I got to work sketching out the main pages:

Most of my time was spent designing the live page, and the categories that lived within it. My new design places the live page at the top of the sidebar, just under Shorts. The main page highlights one video, shows subscriptions and recommendations, and introduces a system of categorization that makes browsing much easier.

User Testing

I had six different users complete a number of tasks using my prototype. While most were able to comfortably move through the site, I noticed that some struggled to navigate through the categories like I wanted.
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In response, I integrated YouTube's existing filter system into the live page so that users would be able to add filters as they browsed categories.

I also realized that I needed to show how live streams exist on a creator's profile. I created a page to demonstrate how live streams could both be integrated into the creator's home page, as well as isolated in a distinct "live streams" tab.

What I Learned

I found the process of redesigning the YouTube Live interface extremely empowering. I was able to turn a frustrating personal user experience into a project that would improve one of my most-visited websites. Rather than being assigned a set of objectives for the project, I was able to establish my goals based on my own needs and the needs of user like me.

This project made me more cognizant of the user experiences that make up my daily life. Instead of passively enduring user experiences that annoy me, I am now constantly coming up with ideas for how to re-envision and improve them. This habit of observation provides excellent practice for framing problems and ideating solutions.