YouTube Quietly Unveils New Channel Design

Just today, we inadvertently stumbled onto some welcome news for YouTube users and content providers and alike.  Completely under the radar, the online video behemoth has just released a brand new design for channel pages.  From our first look, we’re absolutely impressed.

This couldn’t come at a more appropriate time, as we were already planning on launching the Official bigMETHOD YouTube Channel today with an insightful interview of NYC-based music blogger Sheena Beaston.  So we had the perfect opportunity to test out the new design interface.

Here’s what we’re seeing off the bat:

Sleek New Design - the new YouTube channel is much cleaner, crisper, and simply more web 2.0 than we’ve seen in previous iterations.

Improved Clarity of Channel Icons - In the past a major frustration for us has been finding a way to make the channel icon visibly clear.  We have racked our heads forever as to how a major player in the social networking space would have such trouble with the upload of small images to the site.  Numerous phone calls with the team at YouTube over the years have turned up nothing. And this is such an important factor in terms of the search results for channels and the branding of corporate pages. With the new design, problem resolved.

More Streamlined Layout of Channel Information Box - This info always appeared a little scattered and simply archaic from an aesthetics standpoint. It’s great to see a much more visually appealing breakdown of information in one concise place.

Simpler Integration of Uploaded and Favorite Videos - All video content on the channel, both uploaded and favorited, is contained in the same menu directly to the right of the channel’s featured video.  This makes for a more straightforward viewing experience and really adds to the visibility of favorite videos.  They now feel much more a part of the channel, where in the past favorites felt like a simple highlight of what was going on outside of the channel.

User-Friendly Design Interface - the new editing interface for YouTube channels is much more intuitive for users to navigate.  It’s all done in AJAX and updates in real-time so you can view the changes you’re making without even having to refresh the browser.  Very helpful when designing or re-designing your page.

All customization options are broken down into three simple category tabs - Settings, Themes and Colors, and Modules. You can seamlessly transfer from one to the next and make all necessary changes to the page much easier than in the past.

Best of all, if you disagree with my interpretation and don’t like the changes that YouTube has made, they’ve made it very easy to revert back to your old design (Take note Facebook!):

All in all, a great upgrade from the web’s number 1 video destination.  To get a closer look, check out the new bigMETHOD Official YouTube Channel here.