YouTube is getting a lot more channel-friendly as it continues to evolve into a second screen destination for new media. YouTubers have made names for themselves and they’re celebrities (or branded personalities) in the process, so to better show off a YouTuber’s brand, the video platform is introducing a redesigned channel page with a trailer and cover photo, called “channel art.”
All YouTubers will eventually have access to the channel art and redesigned channel page, but for testing purposes the update has been rolled out just to a handful of high-profile users. To get an idea about what the redesign entails, you can take a look at channel pages by DeStorm, EpicMealTime, SORTED, MysteryGuitarMan, LOUD, and Geek & Sundry.
The redesign is meant to encourage viewers to discover more content in various ways. For all the pages that haven’t been updated yet, the layout is simple enough to navigate – so why the new look?
There are two major updates. First is the addition of channel art, which adds a personal flair to any YouTube channel. It’s a chance for YouTubers to catch a viewer’s eye. There’s a reason that Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ all use cover photos, and that’s because they look good and they work. But this isn’t exactly all that new and instead is just getting some YouTube branding thrown on it.
YouTubers have for some time now been able to upload a personalized and interactive banner at the top of the page, which tends to include a visual schedule of the channel’s programming. If you check out the comments on the blog post by iJustine announcing the new designed channel pages, you can see that YouTubers aren’t happy. The customizability of these banners is lost, meaning that you can’t add HTML text to direct users to a channel’s official Web page for example when they click on the banner.
The second part to the update encourages YouTubers to add a “channel trailer” to give viewers a sneak peek on what to expect from the channel. It used to be that YouTubers would feature their best work here, but YouTube is now encouraging teaser trailers.
If you look at this redesign from a structural standpoint, there’s really not much that has changed. Channels still have a banner and a single promo video. Below this are the YouTuber’s videos, although you’ll notice that in the updated design, there are far more videos that you can view in one sitting.
Let us know what you think of the redesign.
