Youtube Subscription Redesign

UX redesign project for Youtube app subscription feature to improve active users' ability to access their desired content more efficiently and to improve their engagement with the app

Project timeline

3 Months

Team

UX Designer | UX researcher

My Role

UX Designer | Researcher | VI Design

Problem Overview

How might we bring more engagement to Youtube subscriptions?

We found that users who subscribe to many channels find it difficult to access their desired content, so this feature gradually becomes unusable. We hope  to provide a more efficient way of participating in interested content by giving users more control over their interested content.

Solution Overview

During the 10 weeks, our team improved subscription top bars to provide users with the ability to pin their favorite creators and enhanced tags selection to filter subscription flows according to categories . Additionally, we designed the flow to customize subscriber lists and groups to help users organize their subscriptions easily and efficiently.

My Contributions are:
> Well-Documented and synthetize quantitative and qualitative research for better design investigations
> Create part of conceptual wireframes, user flow diagrams and clickable prototypes for discussions and testing purposes
> Well-implemented existing design systems and added new features based on solutions
> Collaborated with cross disciplinary domain experts to ensure solutions

01.Research & Validation

Target Users &  Needs

How did we find the right problem to solve?

Survey

Validate: target user needs better management of content

We sent out surveys to better understand users' experiences with the features of YouTube subscriptions, and 28 valid responses were received. Our target audience is defined as users who subscribe to at least 20 channels and are between the ages of 18 and 50. We found that:

1.Target users prefers to watch the subscription more often rather than the recommendation on the home page

2.Most target users show more than five categories of content that they are interested in.

3.More than half of users will enable notifications for their interested creators  to avoid missing their contents

As a result of the above, we are able to validate that better subscription features, such as information flows, categories, and notifications will directly affect their viewing experience.

Interview

Pain points: confusing subscribe and search function

Next, participants shared insights on how they currently manage their subscriptions and watch subscribed content, and feels about current notifications, what pain points they had, and what information and function did they want to see in our products to improve their experience.

After interviewing 6 participants, we arrived at key insights using affinity diagramming.

Interview

Users’ Quotes

Next, participants shared insights on how they currently manage their subscriptions and watch subscribed content, and feels about current notifications, what pain points they had, and what information and function did they want to see in our products to improve their experience.

“ I'm actually not using the subscription section as much because the amount of content and the channels I'm subscribed to will result in a pretty chaotic subscription section. Where it results in I don't exactly know what I'm looking at.” -Kevin

“ I could not search for their favorite channel through the subscriptions bar; instead, I would type the channel's name in the search bar.” -Brendan

Research Synthesis

Key Problem we found

We synthesized points and attempted to understand our current problem.

Users have less control of subscriptions then they may desire, so it becomes unusable over time. This results in a decrease in participation of interested content

Key Insights: Clear and autonomous

We synthesized points and attempted to understand our current problem.

1. Interface

The chaotic design of the subscription section decreases user engagement.

2. Interests

A user's interested categories affect how important it is for them to manage their subscription content.

3. Search

Users could not search for their favorite channel through the subscriptions bar; instead, they would type the channel's name in the search bar.

4. Autonomy

Users lack the willingness to subscribe, and users want to have more autonomy to manage their subscriptions.

"I hate to miss updates for my favorite content"

We create our persona, and highlighted his goals and needs to better analyze users experience about several subscription features.

02.Understand

Ideate Key Features

How might we help users gain more control over their subscriptions?

Journey Map

Map users pain points with behaviors

Using a user journey map, we were able to clarify each pain point and provide strong recommendations based on their emotions and contexts.

It is crucial to clarify our target users and what features should be included in the increasing control of their desired content. Based on this thought, we redefined HMW as below.

Redefine HMW:How might we empower active users that are subscribed to many channels access their desired content more conveniently through organizing their subscriptions.

Ideation

How to organize subscriptions?

We did brainstorm to come up with several solutions to subscription organization, and used 2x2 Matrix to evaluate our ideas by automatic and scalability.

Rapid ideas from HMW

2 By 2 Brainstorming

Down Selection

Customization and management of subscriptions

We have voted for 3 best design solutions following the principles of accessibility and efficiency

03.Prototype

Key Design explorations

Low-fi & User tests

User flow

Ways to customize subscriptions

In order to customize favorite content or creators, we worked on the top bar, content flow, and subscription lists based on design solutions

Prototype

Sketch out the main flow

1.Categorize your favorite

With your customized subscription flow, users can track desired content updates more accurately and efficiently. Category matters because of users' obvious interests in certain topics.

2.Highlight your interested people

By adding their favorite creators to the favorite group, one can highlight their favorites in the top bar. Users can easily find their most concerned creators with this design, increasing their chances of staying in the app longer

1.Group during watching

Users can easily add and adjust their subscription groups while watching. Unlike to open subscription lists, which must be managed individually, this simplifies the process of managing subscriptions for them.

Design System

we followed the original google material design and the UI guide for Youtube design, and added our revised component and buttons

New component for highlighting subscripions and manage creators

05.Iteration

Improve Core Features

Usability Testing

To understand how the proposed subscription management function hep users find desired content. A usability test was set up virtually using an Interactive Figma prototype.It was conducted with 6 users. All taskes reached 100% task completion rate.

Subscription list

Problem
(1) Does not fulfill the need to rename the group
(2) Inefficient to manage subscriptions one at a time

Solution
(1)Add rename function
(2)Add manage button for multiple selection

Customized subscription group

Problem
(1)  Lack of clarity in the process of adding or removing filters
(2) Confused about the different types of filters available

Solution
(1) Remove the minus button in order to clarify
(2)Enhance the visual hierarchy of active filters

Manage during watching

Problem
(1) The Additional button confuses users
(2) The new icon lacks a clear explanation of its meaning

Solution
(1)Integrate buttons into one  
(2)Add the extra function to the existing drawer menu

06.Outcome

Improved subscription for Youtube

Subscription Page

1. Add channel to existing group, Create and add channel to new groups

By adding their favorite creators to the favorite group, one can highlight their favorites in the top bar. Users can easily find their most concerned creators with this design, increasing their chances of staying in the app longer

2. Add favorite channel to top bar

Adding channels to favorites will make them appear on the top bar of the main subscription page. Users can access their favorite channels more conveniently.

Video Management

Subscription management from video page.
Add the channel to Favorites or customized group from the video page.

Give users the ability to add their subscribed channels to groups outside of the main subscription page

Filter Management Page

Add or Remove filters from a list of recommended ones or custom groups created by the user

Give users the ability to view videos of specific categories from their subscribed channels.

Recommended filters are auto-generated filters suggested by the system according to channels youo are interested in.

Video Management

Rename or delete a group/filter user created

Give users more ways to customize the groups they created

Next Step

How to measure success?

To better manage success, for futher development it is important to follow these directions.