YouTube is backtracking on the redesign they were testing on its website. In the last few days, several users noticed a new layout while playing videos. The negative response against it was big, so the company acted accordingly.
The rollout of the new UI was not massive, since it was a test to check the public’s reaction to the change. After seeing the negative response, YouTube reverted it, and now the old design has reappeared for those who got the new one. Multiple users on platforms like Reddit confirmed this.
YouTube has undergone some design changes in recent years. However, the video playback UI has remained more or less the same. Traditionally, it is made up of the video being played, the description and comments below, and the recommended videos on the right. That said, the latest redesign tested by the company made a radical change to this.
YouTube reverts to the old video playback design; this was the layout in test
In the new UI, the playing video kept the same placement. But the description and comments were now on the right, while the recommended videos were below. The new UI had its pros and cons. First, it radically broke with the UI that users have been accustomed to for years, which always tends to cause divided opinions. Also, the recommended videos under the currently playing one were bigger than when they were on the right.
Compared to the classic UI, you could see fewer recommendations at a glance (only 3). You had to scroll to see the others, losing sight of the video being played. However, the new layout did something good. The comments on the right allowed you to scroll while the video was still visible. This could be useful for those users who like to read other people’s contributions in the comments box. In the classic UI, you must scroll down to see them all, removing the video you were watching from the screen.
The new UI seemed heavily inspired by the redesign that the YouTube app for Android TV got in March. Perhaps the ideal thing for a future new UI is to take the best of both. That is, make the comments scrollable without losing sight of the video being played, and without modifying the placement of the video recommendations or description.