Challenge

YouTube is one of the best video platforms worldwide. However, YouTube wish it is not only a video-watching platform, but also a place for users to communicate, participate, contribute, and create more meaningful discourses.

In Fall of 2016 the Savannah College of Art and Design collaborated with Google to research and develop concepts for making YouTube more interactive. A team of two professors and sixteen students were given the design prompt:

“How might YouTube better enable global discourse?”

Process

Over the course of 10 weeks we uncovered unique insights, while leveraging existing material design principles, and catering to Android Mobile users. All the while, the team was guided by workshops from Google and Youtube partners on research, prototyping, and storytelling.

Global Discourse is communication without barriers

One of the most crucial parts of our process was defining what global discourse meant to us. Through the two-week research on user behaviors, needs, intents, and values, we believe that Global Discourse is all about communication without barriers. It is about stimulating participatory action and empowering users to find their own places to contribute and foster global conversation (that can be maintained).

Introducing Level of Engagement

After establishing that global discourse was all about communication without barriers, we wanted to understand what these barriers were. What are they between and what are they preventing? The answer is engagement.

We understand that YouTube caters to various types of user behavior, which inherently differ in the levels of engagement. To explain this, we developed a model that not only identifies the various ways in which users interact with YouTube, but also the barriers that prevent them from engaging further.

Lower the bar

Barrier — Fear

Solution — Encouragement

Our prototype aims to lower the bar of entry for users and enable them to participate in global discourse after watching a video.

Clips

Barrier — Context

Solution — Connections

By creating and sharing these moments, we are facilitating the creation of meaningful connections for users that might not know each other, that are hundreds of miles apart but share that moment in time.

Threads

Barrier — Environment

Solution — Common Ground

Threads is a cross-channel feature that connects users who want to engage in a discourse with other similar individuals based purely on their interests. Users who are not video creators have a place to contribute to the conversations they are passionate about.

Discourse by Topics

Users will be able to seamlessly converse about the content of various videos by common themes and topics that tie them together.

Cross-Channel Link

The cross-channel link will enable the users to connect solely on the basis of topics that they are interested through connecting all the videos on YouTube based on common themes.

Multi-Media Library

The multi-media library in threads would enable the user to share information and content from various sources to enrich their experience.

Impact

Threads is not only for video creator, it’s for everyone. It is the democratization of information. You can have a vast knowledge of theme but no skills in video production. Now, with threads, you can truly create an impact.

Initial Solutions

Our team totally did 13 heuristic prototypes and 3 final prototypes. I made four of them, including Threads. These are some other initial Solutions.

1. YouTube and Chill

Feature: Simultaneous Video Watching. Users can watch videos with other individuals present in the chat room.

Value: This solution reflects the values of face-to-face interaction and allows users to easily adapt a conversation to the environment.

Feedback: This is a useful feature.

Live Video Speed Control

Feature: Provide a speed control option to users while in a live chat.

Value: Live video has very valuable and instant nature to its chat feature which makes it hard to keep up to speed. Hence, this tests if users find value in controlling the speed of a live chat so that they can contribute.

Feedback: Users agree that the speed is a problem in a live video chat section, but making it slower would mean cutting out some comments. This feature is very "YouTuby", but this solution didn't solve the problem on a large-enough scale.