Google is constantly optimizing its services, showing its users ever-so-slightly different versions of its apps and websites to see what works and what doesn’t. It looks like YouTube for web is currently testing a bigger redesign that may or may not ever make it to a broader number of people. A Twitter user spotted a new video view that flips the usual layout, moving the description, title, and comments to the right of the video and content suggestions to the bottom.
The redesign was spotted by @sindowne, who is very vocal about their unhappiness with the new layout. With the video suggestions arranged as a cluster at the bottom of the video player, the screen looks a lot more cluttered and busy, with all kinds of different thumbnails asking for your attention. At the same time, the redesign heavily deemphasizes comments, which are now only available as a small box below the video description next to the player. You presumably have to click the box to view more and comment yourself. The video description is similarly cut off, with only three short lines of text remaining. The usual buttons such as like, dislike, share, and subscribe lose their descriptions.
It’s interesting that there are still many inconsistencies and unknowns in this new design. For example, there is a huge gap between the description/comment section next to the video and the suggestions below it. It would make more sense to fill out the space completely. For the few people who saw the redesign, it also promptly disappeared upon refreshing the site, which further indicates that this is only an early test that is anything but finalized. It’s also unclear how the redesign will look like when you use the theater mode, which makes the video player fill in the full width of your window.
In contrast to the current design, which infinitely scrolls down to reveal more comments and video suggestions, it seems like the new look is supposed to emphasize the video itself and the suggestions for more videos. It’s going to be interesting to see if YouTube will continue in this path and if we will indeed end up with a design similar to this, but for now, it’s safe to assume that the redesign isn’t remotely ready to roll out to the majority of those using YouTube. Who knows, maybe Google will have more to tell us about this during Google I/O 2023 later this month.
Thanks: Kieron
