YouTube Australia Blog: design

Australia Blog

News and rising stars from YouTube Australia

Coming soon to the big screen: Your Australian summer map

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Last week we announced our plan to map the Australian summer with all your experiences. And you responded with videos around Australia, from racing your pets down a sand dune to surf lessons at the beach.

The map of Australia is starting to take shape, and this week, we’re raising the stakes. You may have caught the premiere of Life in a Day, the world’s first full-length user generated documentary. As part of this next generation of radically inclusive creative filmmaking, we’re proud to announce that Screen Australia, in partnership with renowned Australian filmmaker George Miller, will be working with one of the hottest up and coming Aussie directors to turn your summer map into the next great summer film. Only you can answer the question: What does an Australian summer really look like?

Hear from George Miller: What do you see, hear, and feel about the Australian summer?

We’ve just posted a summer playlist with short films from three Australian directors, Ariel Kleiman, Luke Doolan, and Amy Gebhardt, with their own versions of the Australian summer.
One of these directors will be working directly with George Miller to turn your videos into a final film which will debut at the Sydney Film Festival later this year.

What’s more, five members of the YouTube community whose footage is included in the final film will be invited to attend the premiere screening at the Sydney Film Festival.

Ever wondered what the Aussie summer looked like 60 years ago? Here’s one look at our summers past, courtesy of Screen Australia.

To take part in this year’s summer experience, upload your videos from to youtube.com/mapmysummer. You have until March 31st 2011 to film and upload. Let’s share the diversity and the extraordinary nature of this Australian summer with the world.

Ernesto Soriano, YouTube team, recently watched racing your pets down a sand dune.

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Labels: creativity , design , summer , YouTube Australia Blog

New video page launches for all users

Thursday, 1 April 2010

As you may know, we're in the midst of one of the largest redesigns in YouTube's history: we're simplifying the look and functionality of the video page. That's the page you see whenever a video plays, and this redesign is about going "back to basics," focusing attention on the reason why you came to YouTube in the first place -- the video -- and all the ways you engage with content and creators.

We first unveiled the new video page two months ago and checked in four weeks later to tell you about the latest set of changes. Truth is, we've been thinking about this for a long time: what you see is the result of eight months' worth of user research, feedback and data analysis. Now, after a few more additions based on your latest feedback, we are rolling it out to 100% of YouTube users.

Here's what's new about the page:

Overall look and functionality

- It's cleaner, simpler and easier to use.

- Information about a video is now grouped together in one place and there's a consistent way to get more detail when you need it. This way, unless something's truly useful to you, it doesn't clutter up your page.

- We've cleaned up the actions bar; you'll see a streamlined presentation for sharing, flagging and embedding controls.

Discovery

- The right-hand side of the page is devoted to the next video to watch. We're smarter about suggesting the next videos to watch based on how you found the video you're watching in the first place.

- The channel name and subscribe button are now both on top of the video. We found that you prefer having a quick peek at more videos uploaders have created before deciding whether to subscribe to their channels.

Playlists

- There's a new playlist interface, with the next video in the list appearing consistently in the top right. You can easily expand that list or skip ahead using a new next button in the player controls.

- Saving to playlists is easier, and we've made Favourites the default option.

Ratings

- We've replaced the five-star ratings system with a simpler "likes / dislikes" model and introduced a new "Videos I Liked" list.

Comments

- Comments have a new highlights view which summarizes the best discussions and celebrates when creators communicate with their audiences.

We know this is a big change, but we hope you'll find the new page to be an improvement to your YouTube experience and to be a reflection of what you've told us thus far through your usage of the site and your comments to us. We'll be gathering in a conference room at our San Bruno, CA, headquarters at 6 p.m. PT today and tomorrow, and in London at 9 a.m. GMT tomorrow, to respond in near-real-time to your comments in the forums, on this blog and on Twitter. Of course, we'll be listening at other times, too, but we wanted to make sure we were available when you might have the most questions about these changes.

Igor Kofman, Software Engineer, recently watched "Pantyraid - Beba," and Shiva Rajaraman, Product Manager, recently watched "Chat Roulette Funny Piano Improv #2."