Recently I’ve been learning about the Q3 principles of design in class, and when looking for a professional website to critique Youtube.com immediately came to mind. In the screenshot above, many principles are being used correctly and incorrectly. The first principle I thought of was Hick’s Law, because of how many options are presented on YouTube at any given time. Hick’s Law explains that the amount of time it takes to make a decision increases as the number of alternatives increases. The viewer has so many options to choose from right away with videos going on endlessly on the page. The amount of time it takes to look at the options and pick the video best suited to watch would take forever. That’s why YouTube implemented a second design principle of nudging in order to get viewers to click faster. Nudging is a way to alter behavior without restricting options or significantly changing incentives. YouTube/YouTube Creators now have to use nudging such as clickbait in order to keep up with competition. The different categories on the left are type of nudging called a structured choice in order to simplify the process. Every video on the page is trying to nudge the viewer into watching their video. The third principle I saw was Signal to Noise ratio which is the ratio of relevant to irrelevant information showed in a display. There is almost no irrelevant information on the webpage, everything has a place and purpose. Therefore, the noise is very low and the message of the site is crystal clear. The fourth principle seen is the red effect which is the tendency to see women/men/objects with the color red as attention-grabbing or attractive. On YouTube the use of Red is everywhere, highlighting all the categories , almost nudging the viewer to click on them. It is also prevalent in the logo which makes you remember it. The last principle I saw was consistency because of the layout of the page. Consistency means that the usability is improved when similar parts are expressed in similar ways. You tube’s aesthetic consistency is exceptional with every page on its site is identical, even across all platforms. Overall, YouTube uses these principles of design fairly well which is part of the reason why it is the most popular video streaming site around.
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AuthorJames Caspary Archives
January 2019
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