YouTube has a new look. The site’s redesign, which had previously been in the process of A/B testing, was made official yesterday and available to “a small group of people from all around the world.”
This new desktop design has the same look and feel as the current mobile app and YouTube says that they have aimed for a “simple, consistent, and beautiful” look. The majority of the previous box-heavy card design has been erased and instead has been replaced with a simple white background, the usual thumbnails and more white space. As well as this, features that had been deemed “distracting” have been removed, such as columns down the right-hand side that advertise “related” channels.
The change isn’t all that drastic unless you opt for the new “dark mode” feature which replaces the white UI with black. This is meant to cut down on glare and help videos and their thumbnails stand out more. It’s also built on a faster framework, called Polymer, that will allow new features to be rolled out faster.
You can opt to see the new design by typing www.youtube.com/new into your browser but if it’s not for you, go back to the original design by clicking ‘Restore classic YouTube’ in your account menu. Developers are collecting feedback on the new design before it is officially introduced worldwide.
