YouTube Interface Evaluation - Paper Example

Introduction

YouTube is the leading video sharing website. The company was established in 2005 and its headquarter is in San Bruno, California. YouTube users can watch videos uploaded by other users and upload new videos. The videos vary from music, tutorials, to comedies and skits to other audiovisual contents for all ages. One of the main strengths of YouTube is its simple and clean user interface (UI) that makes it navigable, and immersive.

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YouTube user interface design was meant to be a truly interactive website that users can easily operate the website without even reading tutorials. The User interface has an adequate direction to find an explanation for all command that any user can execute. Through an integrative process, the user's can move to all parts of the website from creating personal accounts to either posting personal videos or viewing other videos. There are also numerous tutorials that the users can view as they navigate the website and the user experiences are equally fulfilling. One goal that the user experience designer of the YouTube website had in mind was to create a product that will provide the user with meaningful and relevant experience (Bollini, 2017). There are several modules that have been integrated intothe YouTube to enhance user experiences. Even though most of the modules were aimed at branding, usability, and design, the modules have enhanced the functionality of the website.

Emotions and the User Experience

The layout of the website makes it easy for the users to select the videos that they feel can go well with their mood. The websites combined emotions and user experiences and the most recent algorithm help the website in suggestion the most likely videos in which a user may be interested based on a combination of factors such as the user's search and watch history and the other preference factors. The user feeds will always be comprised of the past videos and the latest videos of the user's preferred artists. The algorithm can also understand which vides one preference whether they are tutorials, academic, musical, or adventure videos. Every suggestion is particularly tailored to the user's preferences.

Color psychology

The black writing on the white background is part of color psychology applied on YouTube. Black and white are at the two extreme ends of the much-known color spectrum. The company uses color in its branding and has used black and white extensively. In color psychology, the white color is associated with purity, innocence, and fresh things or beginnings (Dubrovsky, 1989). However black caloyer sis considered intimidating and is associated with mysterious things such as death. Combining the two is like combining the extreme ends of emotions and in between a lot can happen from fun, adventure, and entertainment. Other people associate black with luxury, and sophistication. However, the primary reason for using black color is confidence and strength. Black and white color on the website can lead the users to look at the thumbnails, click on the thumbnail to view the content. Some title is also quite tempting and can draw attention to important features of YouTube. Red is used in the logo and subscribes button to attract attention because red on black makes the color pop up.

The combination of bac and white colors shows just how the appearance of the website or the user interface can influence the user decision. The interface is so simple that even the uneducated can navigate the website. It is relatively easy for the viewers to click the images on the right without even reading because the pictures or thumbnails provide adequate information. For those who are literate, they can decide whether to watch a video or click a link by reading the text below or above the pictures (Maksimovich, 2011). One can also view the links for further information. Therefore, the use of the interface to change emotions, influence the viewer's decision is highly applied to YouTube. Once the color or the picture has influence emotions, it is easy for the people to change their attitude based on the color they see and the image they see the first type the open the website. When an individual is emotionally attached to YouTube, it is because they find the YouTube easy to use and the content more fulfilling. It is the emotional feedback they get from watching YouTube drive them to use YouTube.

Expressive Interface is also Another Strategy Used in YouTube

Whenever a user clicks on any link or image, they are transferred to other pages or content. The feedbacks are reassuring and there is no dead link in the website. Users are affected differently with the feedback they get (Nerurkar, 2001). There is an emoticon for expression whether one likes the videos, and does not like the video. there are also buttons for disliking, competing or reporting the video that violates the user regulations such as the videos that expose nudity or discriminatory contents such as extremists. YouTube does not want to be affiliated with any political body and has a strong stand against political and religious divisionary sentiments.

Conversation

YouTube is a place for conversion and has allocated a section for conversation. YouTube is a community of video lovers. Everyone is free to post contents. Secondly, everyone is free to post ital. content, or comment on other people's content. The content creator is free to use a button to turn off commenting on posts. The presence of comment control button gives the content creators autonomy which is what most users want. The freedom to choose who should comment and not (Sukaviriya, 1993). As a conversation platform, the comment is posted in real time for immediate response. Every response to posts is organized by topic or content. The comments are also groups in precedence from the first to the last. This enables users to find specific texts or comments factor.

Personal Account, Security, Privacy and Control

Every user must create a strong password for his account, even though the original author should respond to every comment, he has the author to choose what to comments on and what he should not comment on. Through personal accounts, the users can monetize and control their content and security of their content. No one can delete content or videos from a user's account without having the security details (Sukaviriya, 1993). The user can use single or multiple step security herein referred to as two-step security with a password and one times code sent to one's phone. Therefore, the company is not liable for unauthorized access to a user's personal account. The users must use the avail lee security features to protect their content from theft.

Schedules, Rules, and Conventions

YouTube creators can schedule their content to daily, weekly or monthly. There is an inbuilt calendar for scheduling and reminders. The content creators can organza their activities. One of the most effective ways is to use the calendar (Nerurkar, 2001). The creators can also use tags to maintain orders, pattern and keep track of any changes and conventions. YouTube has a convention for posting and is championing form the safety of the minor. There are conventions that are posted in three websites homepage for everyone to see.

Use of Tags and Micro Chatting

Content creators can use tags for branding the series they post on YouTube. The goal of most content creators is to create a hit video. Most creates are interested in turning the video into a branded series. The creators can use the tags to influence YouTube user to subscribe for more of similar content. Tags such as "more where that came from" tag inbuilt for people to subscribe to the same channel (Maksimovich, 2011). Using consistent tags and titles is preferred. After posting the videos, the share button also appears for the users to share the content with their families and friends on YouTube and outside YouTube as there are links to social media for sharing and initiating conversation. Conversation is what makes the website interactive, attractive and immersive.

Users can interact freely over the video sharing platform. People can chat openly in the comments section., people can chat with the content creators to provide insight or make builds. They can also micros hat other users. Liveblogging is also possible on YouTube. Most of the content creators develop content to create awareness, teacher other, share knowledge, initiate discourse or blog about personal life. It is minorant to note that YouTube does not limit users to a few characters such as Twitter. The users, therefore, need tools for publishing and optimizing their content to the viewers.

Cognitive Aspects of User Interface Design

YouTube combines experiential and reflective cognitive processes. The user can choose to respond to videos or ignore. They can also decide to video vies, think about the video and compare. One of the main strengths of YouTube is that users can critique the videos they see posted on social media. The users must attend to the video it understands the content that is why YouTube is considered attention intensive and the users cannot multitask without compromising their perception of one of the two things they are multitasking. Perception and recognition are another aspect of YouTube that cannot be ignored. The text is legible and the videos are clear. The audio is also very clear become the author has the tools to edit the video quality. One problem though, the standard language is English, only a few additional languages are available which makes it a niche website for the people who can read English.

Learning

The website takes learning into consideration. There are options and menus that can be used by the users to invoke voice command. The speech-based menu helps the users to navigate the website. the people who have problems with eyesight, they can use the buttons listed on the left to expands the texts on the screen

Memory and Design Thinking

Users have a small memory capacity to memorize all the information that see or read on YouTube. if they must capture all the information in one seating, then the user interphase should make the work easier for them by reducing the complexity of the website. Therefore, the YouTube design and layout has taken this into consideration by having a simple layout with a few items on the menu. The number of options is significantly reduced to only3 which mean that the menu items are a few icons. On the toolbar, there is only one icon at the top of the video windows. All the thumbnails for new videos are aligned to the right and comments section below the video window. Whether viewing on a mobile phone or on the computer the layout fits well and the thumbnails and menu items do not block the videos. The users can zoom the videos in and out depending on the user their preferences.

Conclusion

The user interface or layout of the website is also quite unique. The users can easily zoom or expand the viewing space to their liking. The users are also free to select the preferred video quality from 720p to 144 p or auto. Giving the user the autonomy to select the preferred quality in the settings area help in maximizing the user experience. The user interface can evoke emotions because it is expressive. One can easily get a glimpse of what to expect and a menu of what they can access. One can use the search bar to find the targeted items, artists, video, or content faster or interact with the recommended video first. One can also refine his search to get the particular video he was looking for. Whether using the website for entertainment or as a content creator seeking to monetize content, the user interface is quite interactive and informative.