YouTube Together: Creating Shared Experiences

Client:

YouTube
Active Volunteers

Core Users:

Experienced Users: Event Hosts & Guests

Roles:

Assumptions & objectives, proto-personas, user stories, user flows, user testing, final presentation

Tools:

Google Docs, Google Sheets, Miro, Figma

Team:

Juan Gechem, Kevin Mantz, & Myself

Duration:

Mid May – Late June 2022

Project Overview

YouTube is an online video-sharing and social media platform providing diverse video content, including user-generated and platform-based content. Now owned by Google, YouTube is the second most viewed online website,right after Google itself.

The Hypothesis

We believe users want a fun and exciting collaborative environment to host a shared, multi-person streaming experience.

During initial brainstorming, we noticed a gap in the classic watch party provided by our competitors that YouTube could only fill to create our fun, collaborative experience.

YouTube has the largest free content video library: YouTube has access to a vast amount of free content built and provided by its usersfor its users.
YouTube has vast genre diversity: With a genre library that contains access to categories, sub-genre filters, and more diverse content curation.
YouTube gives users access to long-form and short-form content: Access to long-form and short-form content, with its diverse range of content and providers. Media content can take multiple forms.

The Challenge

How might we help our user base create and host a shared, interactive and collaborative online streaming experience for their guests?

How to best address sharing and collaborating on content became most prominent through event scheduling, event communication, and connection requirements.

Users Want To:

Stream contentwith other users.
Communicate with other users during a shared experience.
Set up an initial experience and invite guests to come.
See friends onlineand invite themto join in.

The Process

Research Methodology

6 Qualitative Interviews: 4 small nonprofit leaders, 2 large nonprofit leaders
Interview Duration: 45 minutes
Components: Consent form, Informational Interview, and Analysis with cluster mapping

Key Research Insights

Small nonprofits need increased help

Connection: Large nonprofits have the luxury to be particular with their partnerships, while smaller nonprofits utilize even unusual partnerships.
Support: Larger nonprofits have easy access to volunteers, while small nonprofits struggle to find support.
Funding Resources: Nonprofits, no matter the size, are all vying for the same funding as each other every year.
Marketing Resources: Marketing and social media are handled or outsourced easily with large teams, but small or local nonprofits struggle.

Smaller nonprofits can’t meet the expectations that larger nonprofits set without additional funding or support.

Our Proto-Personas

We focused on a main user group: Experienced YouTube users looking to host a watch party event.

Proto-Personas were created to understand better our user groups and some of the motivations, goals, and pain points they might face.

User Stories

Our next step was to create a mass of user stories based on our proto-persona viewpoints. We then narrowed down to the core stories that we found were important for all three personas.

As a host, I want to easily invite guests beforehandso that joining the event is effortless.
As a host, I want to curate a playlist with a co-host beforehand so that we can prepare for a smooth event.
As a host, I want to host an unscheduled event so that I can interact spontaneously with friends.
As a host, I want to interact in a safe space to share interests without judgment.
As a host, I want to extend an invitation to uninvited guests during the shared experience.
As a host, I want to extend the event so we can continue sharing content whenthe event is going well.
As a host, I want guests to participate, chat, & interact throughout the experience so they have fun and feel included.
As a host, I want to allow guests to add their favorite videos to include them and to remove the personal burden of creating a party playlist.

Task Flows:

These user stories worked together to build out the user flow map. This map helped define the natural flow of our new experience and how users might easily navigate the space.

This flow follows a path of inviting a friend or guest to a watch party that has already been started.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Once our Ideation stages were completed, we started low-fidelity wireframes better to understand the layout and flow of YouTube Together.

**The Event Page** allows users to view, comment, and chat on videos together. Setting up a playlist as well to keep the party going. These low fidelity wireframes developed more after user testing sessions.

Design System

We then implemented YouTube’s design system to our new product to ensure harmony between YouTube and YouTube Together.

User Testing Methodology

Moderated User Testing: Round 1

5 event hosts: main user focus, gaining insights into their needs & pain points.
Components: Low fidelity prototype, user testing guide, moderated test through Zoom or in-person, & analysis.
Testing Duration: 45 minutes

Moderated User Testing: Round 2

The Solution

We created wireframes and prototypes to solve our challenge based on the insights gained during our ideation process. We honed our user stories and flows into key functions to help YouTube Together users have a frictionless shared experience.

Host Event Setup

Our new experience needed a simple way to schedule and set up before the event started.

Considering the user stories, we built an event setup with minimal steps.
The event setup developed further after testing, resulting in customizable drop-down windows and user-friendly UI navigation.

"Overall, it was a good experience; easy to use, and nothing was too complicated."

Host Toolbar + Party Video Feed

YouTube Together needed a way for a host to still control an event while allowing guests’ participation in the party.

Initially, our host toolbar was accessible from the video feeds, which was extremely difficult for users to notice and utilize
The ‘Host Toolbar’ expanded into a vital space on our screen, allowing for quick/intuitive access to controls for the host and co-host.

"The host panel was great, and having all those features there was helpful - it was everything anyone may need to host an event."

Event Side Panel

Community and connection were clearly important to our users. YouTube Together users needed a way to collaborate and chat with each other.

Hosts can easily chat, react, and share emojis/gifs with guests using the ‘Party Chat’ window.
Guests can interact with the ‘Party Queue’ to add their finds and favorites.
Users can minimize and expand their side panels, customizing them to improve their experience.

"I liked the ability to minimize the panels on the right side... it be could be useful because sometimes the screen could look cluttered."

Adding Videos & Guided Tutorial

YouTube Together needed a way to relieve the pressure of maintaining a playlist queue for our host & allowing guests functions to keep the party going.

Having guests add videos allowed them to interact smoothly and easily with the event.
Pain points emerged regarding video searches.
Creating a guided tutorial allowed for better user education and understanding of YTT.

"I liked the guided tutorial. It addressed some of the initial concerns that were presented with the last prototype."

The Results

Immediate Markers for Success:

Users found YouTube Together to be an exciting and easy way to share content through YouTube.
Users found the functions we introduced to be easy to navigate and quickly identifiable with existing branding.
Event setup was easy to accomplish, allowing easy search and adding features without navigating to a new screen.
Users loved viewing the status of their event on the main Youtube Together page, sending reminders, and adding friends to easily view and expand their party with additional guests and notifications.
The event page provided many interactive features for our host and some for our participants. At the final testing session, our users found these functions easy to navigate and identify, making the toolbar simple and easy to remember for future use.
YouTube Together improved their idea of what a watch party could be.

Next Steps

From our last round of user testing, we were able to form a few more assumptions we were able to build into our prototype that we would like to test. These assumptions have taken slightly more specific forms as we refine our ideas.

As a host, I want:

To add and remove guests before the event has started.
To add to an event’s playlist before the event has started.
An automatic reminder for hosts to send guests who still haven't sent RSVPs.
I want the sidebar to minimize and expand together for simple space customization.