YouTube rolls out new design focused on subscriptions & channels

YouTube is rolling out a brand new look on its website that emphasizes its growing channel-based ecosystem of content creators.

The YouTube Guide, which helps you keep up with new videos from your subscribed channels and activity from friends, is now more prominent on the site as you browse through everything. That means there is a greater opportunity for you to click on stuff that you’ve already determined you liked. YouTube is also adding more opportunities for a person to subscribe to a channel with various subscription buttons. (See a screenshot at the bottom of the post for a look at some of the new changes.)

I’ll admit that the only time I really scan through my feed/guide of activity on YouTube is when I first log in. Beyond that, I rarely think to scan through it for new stuff to watch. These changes may fix that.

Another big change is the way YouTube treats video playlists. As you can see from the screenshot below, the list of videos now appears on the right side of the video player, thus allowing you greater opportunity to scan though the list while the current video is still playing.

The revamped design is also consistent across most platforms, meaning that the website, smartphone app(s), and newly released native iPad app will all show roughly the same user interface, video guide, and subscription functionality. That’s something that YouTube hasn’t really been able to say in the past.

YouTube said the new design will begin rolling out in the next few hours, meaning some people (including myself) may have to wait a while. However, if you’re already seeing the changes, let us know your opinions in the comment section.