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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
3 Months
UX Designer | UX researcher
UX Designer | Researcher | VI Design
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.
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
How did we find the right problem to solve?
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.
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.
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
We synthesized points and attempted to understand our current problem.
We synthesized points and attempted to understand our current problem.
We create our persona, and highlighted his goals and needs to better analyze users experience about several subscription features.
How might we help users gain more control over their subscriptions?
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.
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
We have voted for 3 best design solutions following the principles of accessibility and efficiency
Low-fi & User tests
In order to customize favorite content or creators, we worked on the top bar, content flow, and subscription lists based on design solutions
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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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.
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
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.
Rename or delete a group/filter user created
Give users more ways to customize the groups they created
To better manage success, for futher development it is important to follow these directions.
