YouTube’s new video UI is intensely controversial, survey shows

YouTube is often tinkering with its interface, usually to the dismay of those who are subject to the experiment. Some Reddit users expressed ire over tested changes to the YouTube UI last week, but you can always find angry people on the internet. We were more interested in finding out the general feelings about the significant changes, so we polled our readers to find out.

If you missed the apparent outcry, YouTube has begun rolling out a redesigned video player interface for its web platform, replacing the decade-old design with one featuring pill-shaped controls and a cleaner video view. However, users who are unhappy with the changes point out the apparent removal of the ability to scroll on the volume bar or use keyboard shortcuts to adjust audio. The update coincides with the 20th anniversary of the platform’s first uploaded video, but how many people are unhappy with this disruption to long-established user habits?

Do you like the new YouTube video player UI on the web?

As the chart above shows, opinions on the new YouTube video player UI couldn’t be much more divided. After thousands of votes, 46% of you said you like the new UI, with almost 54% saying you don’t.

Perhaps this indecisive outcome shouldn’t be too surprising. Contrary to what some believe, Google isn’t attempting to annoy YouTube users when it makes changes to the service, and must have had reason to believe the change would be beneficial. That said, some people resist almost any change, especially tweaks to systems they have gotten used to over a ten-year timeframe. Whatever YouTube does, it’ll never please everyone.

The comments section under our news story offers more insight into why people voted as they did. On one side of the argument, reader renn444 welcomed the change, stating, “As someone with vision problems, the new UI helps me a lot, so I like it more. It looks a lot cleaner.”

Reader pu239 disagreed, commenting, “Why is it better? It increases the height of controls, reducing visual space, adds unnecessary backgrounds to the buttons, and adds silly pills.” Other commenters hadn’t experienced the changes yet, but were still grumbling about the large thumbnails test.