YouTube creates its first information hub for everything Creators.
YouTube for Creators is the first one-stop-shop and entry point for new YouTube Creators. It acts as a hub that introduces everything needed to get started on YouTube and then navigates them to specific relevant resources in the ecosystem.
Through strategy immersion and deep research, we identified the key queries, motivations, and mindsets of creators. We built and designed the site upon clear content frameworks that lays out the bigger picture, topic-driven, and issue-driven content.
Role
Lead Visual & Interaction Designer (See details)
Skills
UX Thinking
Visual design
Problem Solving
User testing
Motion/Prototyping
Know the User
New Creators, recently beginning to build their content and still channel and still has a lot to learn
Goals
Create an engaging front door entry that consolidates resources over numerous sites, clarify YouTube’s value proposition and policies, and keep users feeling good about being YouTube Creators!
Approach
Through understanding our Creator’s motivation and mindset, design and deliver a scalable modular site to accommodate for core strategic framework and content shifts.
Problem
Due to the vastness of YouTube help, policy, and communication system, new Creators start to feel confused, uninformed, and unclear on where to find need-to-know information.
The team at YouTube approached us with the issue that important information is not only spread over numerous sites but also isn’t necessarily owned and operated. There seems to be a perception of YouTube not caring or providing important resources. Creators are often confused about where to look for the correct and latest information as policies and tools across surfaces are disorganized and fragmented.
Solution
We created an engaging entry point for new YouTube Creators that clearly outlines the value proposition, educates on how to get started on YouTube, and navigates Creators to relevant resources. Most importantly, we want people to feel good about being YouTube Creators.
The complex needs and critical issues naturally led to multiple pivots and focus shifts in strategy and design; this includes the alignment on how much contextual content is needed on the site before presenting other links and resources.
Recognizably YouTube
Since the site is the first of its kind, we needed to infuse the right amount of brand identity. It was a challenge concurrently creating the brand of the site while YouTube is aligning the visual identity of the entire organization. The full range of brand colors, shapes, and patterns was an opportunity for us to explore a diverse range of visual directions.
Through multiple rounds of design, we leaned towards a clean and content-first layout that prioritizes displaying information over the bolder and vibrant directions we proposed. The selected direction clearly emphasizes Creators with images sourced from their videos cut out and paired with patterns.
Welcome, Creators
A big opportunity of this project is introducing YouTube’s value proposition to new or potential creators. This big-picture page introduces the platform and provides reasons why be a YouTube Creator. To keep the content relatable and inspiring, we spotlight creators and specific tips connecting back to the main YouTube pillars.
Throughout the site, we wanted to leverage the web’s interactivity for an intentional reveal of information, creating a good balance of content digestability.
A system of modules
After spending a few months on strategy and content, we decided to create a modular system where the site could be built from a selection of modules we’ve designed. This allowed the system to not only flex to any type or amount of content but also for development to happen in parallel. From that, we determined the different page types and how the modules would be stacked together for these pages. The 16 modules and their variations were able to account for all the site’s purposes and content types needed.
How things work & tertiary pages
The main bulk content of the site is within the How thing work pages and tertiary pages. How things work cover macro topics core to YouTube, with subtopics that illustrate supporting information. We introduce these topics with contextual guiding information before linking users to another page or external site with more detailed information.
Tertiary pages are longer-form content or a detailed article with more information will be housed, such as news articles, Creator stories, and subtopic detail pages.
Creator Toolkit
Alongside the developed site and Figma source files, we provided the site guideline, ‘Creator Toolkit’, providing both technical design details and content guidance for content managers, designers, and developers.
