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YouTube Pins 📍
📍
YouTube Pins
UX + INTERACTION DESIGN / SOLO DESIGN PROJECT / 1 WEEK / DEC 2018
A simple bookmarking feature that allows viewers to pin specific points in videos to help keep track of their favourite moments.
creating a pin, viewing pins
TL;DR - content sifting on YouTube can take forever, so I designed a feature that made it quicker.
This project was done in 2018, but in 2021, YouTube rolled out a similar feature called Clips. It's nice to see similar selling points in their rundown video - I've definitely been making good use of it since then 🙂
Context
YouTube Pins was a personal project developed in December 2018. YouTube has grown immensely over the last few years and the amount of videos the platform has amassed is incredible. But with this, it's become harder to recall particular videos that were memorable to me or ones that had parts that really made me laugh. This is where the idea of pinning video positions arose.
Reason From Experience
CURRENT USER FLOWS / METHODS + INSIGHTS
it can be easy to lose track of all the videos from people you subscribe to
Endless Content
A lot of YouTube personalities upload multiple videos per week, so it can be easy to imagine even over the course of a month,
how much content can be added to a channel. One channel I follow has over 2200 videos, and there are moments
that I remember that clearly stood out to me. Since I don't have a habit of liking or saving videos though, I have to go
back and check every video that I think could have had that clip.
It can be increasingly frustrating when creators have a consistent thumbnail style making it even harder for users to distinguish between them.
current liked videos page
Continued Sifting
The current way to save a video is to either like it, which will add it to a playlist of liked videos, or you can add it to another custom playlist. Even if you remember which video consisted of a certain moment, you would still have to tediously look through it until you come across it. This can be even more frustrating for videos that are longer in duration. Usually I don't want to rewatch an entire 20-minute video to find one 10-second clip.
'Liking' a Video is a Vague Concept
There are many reasons a viewer might like a video; they could have thought it was entertaining, they could have agreed with the creator's opinions, or they could have liked it as a simple gesture of support. With all of a user's liked videos ending up in the same playlist, they can't be distinguished from one another.
Confusion From Minimal Context
To carry on from this, it's not possible to note why you've saved or liked the video. Without context, it can be harder to remember why you've saved certain videos.
A Similar Concept
Usually viewers will comment with timestamps linking to different parts of the video. Being able to tap on a timestamp to take you
to that moment is exactly what I want to accomplish with the feature I'm designing, and it already exists within YouTube. There are a few issues however when
it comes to using these timestamps:
Comments Cycle
top comments can quickly cycle out over time making it difficult to look back to.
Reliance on Others
if a user has commented about a certain part of a video without including a timestamp, you would still have to look for it yourself.
It's Public
some people don't want to post things publicly for others to see, so they may not always want to comment with a timestamp for even personal use.
timestamp comments from users
Design Goals
Sometimes I would spend near half an hour trying to find what I'm looking for. Often times I would just give up because it was such a tedious task. From this, I developed a journey map that illustrated what the above experiences would feel like.
user journey
I've concluded the two main goals driving this feature would be to:
1. reduce the time it takes and the amount of work required to refer back to clips.
2. give clips meaning and reasoning by allowing users to create context for what they save.
If I could personally pin a timestamp in a video that I could easily refer back to, I wouldn't have to go through an entire channel every time I want to experience it again.
Implementation
INTEGRATION + INTERACTION
pinning a video position
Two Taps Away
By integrating the pin button to the already-existing menu of buttons that appear under every video, users are able to quickly pin a position with minimal disruption to their current viewing experience.
Function
The menu consists of a few options to help pinpoint a specific location and lets users write a brief explanation of the pin.
current pins show up here
create a pin at the current
video position
keep track of pins by
writing about them
fine-tune the position
of a pin
seeking snaps to pinned positions
Snap to Position
When seeking through a video you've made a pin for, the position marker will snap to any timestamp you've marked so you can easily jump to favourite moments.
revisit pins
Clear Organization
All the clips you've pinned are kept in one place with simple information including the video title, channel name, and pin info, making it easy to keep track of and refer to.
Takeaways
From Vision to Product
To this day I still end up spending way too much time trying to look for different parts of old videos that I liked, and it's incredibly frustrating not being able to find it. This project has let me express and address my frustrations around these issues as I've always wanted a quicker and easier way to bookmark parts of videos.
MORE WORK
