![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
◾ Tags:
Early this afternoon YouTube suddenly switched over to a new video player without a word in advance. (Umm, thanks?)
It looks like this:
The volume control is a hidden slider that appears to the right of the volume icon. When the mouse cursor isn't over the video pane the timeline, here shown in red, collapses into a tiny red bar. The video controls also fade out into an eye-straining light grey in their default state.
EDIT: I just noticed they also added shuffle to playlists. It only took them a month!
It looks like this:
The volume control is a hidden slider that appears to the right of the volume icon. When the mouse cursor isn't over the video pane the timeline, here shown in red, collapses into a tiny red bar. The video controls also fade out into an eye-straining light grey in their default state.
EDIT: I just noticed they also added shuffle to playlists. It only took them a month!
◾ Tags:
Well it's been almost a month since the redesign was rolled out. I've addressed numerous other issues in the first four parts of this series. You can read them using the following links (they're image heavy): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
What I haven't yet addressed but will do so in this very post is the video page itself. Here's what the page boils down to. Due to vertical scrolling I can't capture the whole thing in one screenshot. Above the video is YouTube header with their banner, the search bar, log in, and when you're logged in a box that can be expanded for further options (I'll elaborate on this later). Below it is the description box and the interactivity options which I'll be going over one at a time.
Normally the subscription module is collapsed into one entry and there is no option to enable permanent expansion. During beta testing Autoplay was on by default with no way to turn it off.
Now if this were my video there would be a strip of links above the video player that looks like this:
Alright I'll grant them that this is an improvement except for one thing. You can't right click to open any of these links in a new tab. That's why the Annotations box is shaded. Although it didn't get picked up in my screenshot I've got it selected to try to open the annotations window in a new tab. However the right click box won't even open.
The down arrow box next to the video owner's name and number of videos opens this:
This is basically the same thing as the old more videos from this user box that used to sit underneath the sidebar. At least this one isn't as buggy as the old box but it still has the same limitation in the number of videos it will display.
At only four pages, displaying 6 links per page, a maximum of 24 videos are accessible through this box. For someone with many videos this is little more then an option to check if you've missed a video uploaded recently. Hmm, I can think of a better option for this space. Let me do a little shameless copying and pasting here and...
This would be far more useful. That means it will never happen.
There's the account access box I mentioned earlier. It used to be that many of those same links were listed on the page itself and would pop up when you moused over your account name. Not anymore however. Now it takes a minimum of two clicks to get where you're going.
Having an annotation editor on the video page itself enabled a video owner to quickly insert an annotation without waiting for another page to load. The editor page is notoriously buggy with a history of being broken beyond useability due to server errors. It also has to fully load the video (a low-quality version) if you want to place or edit an annotation near the end without risk of the system breaking.
One of the core features of YouTube is sharing a video. This is done by using the share function under the video, linking to a video on another site, or embedding it somewhere.
It used to be that you would get a drop box with contacts on YouTube (friends and such) to whom you could send a link to the video you wanted to share. There is no way to do this directly under the new system. However users still have a 'Shared With You' folder in their inbox on YouTube. You can attach videos to private messages still but only your own videos.
My annotated screenshot above expresses my thoughts perfectly. Once again YouTube is obstructing things behind additional clicks.
What I haven't yet addressed but will do so in this very post is the video page itself. Here's what the page boils down to. Due to vertical scrolling I can't capture the whole thing in one screenshot. Above the video is YouTube header with their banner, the search bar, log in, and when you're logged in a box that can be expanded for further options (I'll elaborate on this later). Below it is the description box and the interactivity options which I'll be going over one at a time.
Normally the subscription module is collapsed into one entry and there is no option to enable permanent expansion. During beta testing Autoplay was on by default with no way to turn it off.
Now if this were my video there would be a strip of links above the video player that looks like this:
Alright I'll grant them that this is an improvement except for one thing. You can't right click to open any of these links in a new tab. That's why the Annotations box is shaded. Although it didn't get picked up in my screenshot I've got it selected to try to open the annotations window in a new tab. However the right click box won't even open.
The down arrow box next to the video owner's name and number of videos opens this:
This is basically the same thing as the old more videos from this user box that used to sit underneath the sidebar. At least this one isn't as buggy as the old box but it still has the same limitation in the number of videos it will display.
At only four pages, displaying 6 links per page, a maximum of 24 videos are accessible through this box. For someone with many videos this is little more then an option to check if you've missed a video uploaded recently. Hmm, I can think of a better option for this space. Let me do a little shameless copying and pasting here and...
This would be far more useful. That means it will never happen.
There's the account access box I mentioned earlier. It used to be that many of those same links were listed on the page itself and would pop up when you moused over your account name. Not anymore however. Now it takes a minimum of two clicks to get where you're going.
Having an annotation editor on the video page itself enabled a video owner to quickly insert an annotation without waiting for another page to load. The editor page is notoriously buggy with a history of being broken beyond useability due to server errors. It also has to fully load the video (a low-quality version) if you want to place or edit an annotation near the end without risk of the system breaking.
One of the core features of YouTube is sharing a video. This is done by using the share function under the video, linking to a video on another site, or embedding it somewhere.
It used to be that you would get a drop box with contacts on YouTube (friends and such) to whom you could send a link to the video you wanted to share. There is no way to do this directly under the new system. However users still have a 'Shared With You' folder in their inbox on YouTube. You can attach videos to private messages still but only your own videos.
My annotated screenshot above expresses my thoughts perfectly. Once again YouTube is obstructing things behind additional clicks.
Then we get to the mess that is the comments section. I'll go into full detail in the next segment of this little adventure (due to needing large screenshots and not wanting to overload this post) but for now I'll just point out how distracting having the comments section broken up by the Uploader Comments and Video Responses sections actually is.
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
----
0:00:27.040,0:00:30.112
KID: Great. It's the floor data for level six.
0:00:30.176,0:00:32.736
I'll download it to the Griffon's computer.
0:08:39.616,0:08:43.104
KID: A laser cutter. I'll take it along just in case.
0:09:47.776,0:09:50.752
BOSS: KID that's the factory area. It's dangerous.
0:09:50.816,0:09:55.488
Go after the enemy there only if you're finished upgrading your weapons.
0:09:55.456,0:09:56.960
KID: Roger.
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
[Completion of this entry was delayed until April 15th however I did check to ensure that nothing had changed in the way YouTube handles playlists in the interim.]
At the end of my last entry I said I was going to touch on playlists. I do have a few other points that I want to get to in this post but the current state of playlist functionality and accessibility represents both success and failure on the part of YouTube's design team.
For the history of this series see part 1, part 2, and part 3.
( Read more... )
At the end of my last entry I said I was going to touch on playlists. I do have a few other points that I want to get to in this post but the current state of playlist functionality and accessibility represents both success and failure on the part of YouTube's design team.
For the history of this series see part 1, part 2, and part 3.
( Read more... )
◾ Tags:
I've already addressed the situation on launch day in Part one and some history of changes in design and useability in Part Two.
All that's left then is to directly address the new video page itself. What works? What doesn't?
( Read more... )
All that's left then is to directly address the new video page itself. What works? What doesn't?
( Read more... )
◾ Tags:
See part one right here. WARNING: There are tables embedded into this entry. Run away now if you're allergic to such formatting.
One thing that I didn't mention yesterday, but which is still an amazingly-thoughtless move on YouTube's part, is that the new beta HTML5 player is either non-functional now (reverting back to Flash) or is only accessible in Chrome using the Feather beta. Details are sketchy with scattered posts in the help forum (scroll down for recent entries) and the blog entry I linked to yesterday.
From page one:
"greg400 said...
( Read more... )
One thing that I didn't mention yesterday, but which is still an amazingly-thoughtless move on YouTube's part, is that the new beta HTML5 player is either non-functional now (reverting back to Flash) or is only accessible in Chrome using the Feather beta. Details are sketchy with scattered posts in the help forum (scroll down for recent entries) and the blog entry I linked to yesterday.
From page one:
"greg400 said...
- HTML5 doesn't even work anymore with this new terrible layout. To top it all of the CPU usage while watching videos is even higher now making matters worse that you can't use HTML5. Fix it.
( Read more... )
◾ Tags:
Anyone who's known me for awhile knows I spend an inordinate amount of time on YouTube wandering around the gaming community watching LPs, reading comments, and generally being entertained. However, on March 31st the YouTube video page layout was overhauled and for the last two days I haven't had much incentive to continue my normal routine. You can find the official blog post on the YouTube blog right here:
youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-video-page-launches-for-all-users.html
( Read more... )
youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-video-page-launches-for-all-users.html
( Read more... )
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
◾ Tags:
