14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube’s recent, and not universally approved, redesign is about to get a follow-up. While it’s nothing on the scale of the major revamp at the start of this month, it’s a pretty significant change, as it involves the one thing that probably gets most of the use and attention on YouTube, the actual video player. A new video player has been in testing and it has now been rolled out for a much bigger number of videos and users. The player follows the new visual style of the site and comes with a number of interesting design features.
It looks a little more subtle than the regular YouTube player, taking a very minimalistic approach, nothing surprising for Google. It also works to remove some of the clutter, if you can call it that. It’s true that, with new features like captions and other recent additions, the player had gotten somewhat crowded. The new player only shows the buttons it really has to.
During playback, it also fades out a little to distract the viewer as little as possible. The timeline indicator has been moved about the main toolbar and is much less emphasized. The buttons come into focus if you hover the mouse over the bar, though, and the timeline becomes more pronounced. The volume slider is now horizontal and integrated in the player bar. It slides out when you hover over the volume button.
The button layout has been in flux for a few months, with YouTube tweaking the existing player, so the new player doesn’t bring any changes in this department. In fact, the change should be very easy to digest by most users, it’s a visual upgrade and does a few things differently, but, overall, there shouldn’t be any problems.
Then again, when the YouTube redesign went live, plenty of users were more than vocal about their dislike. At one point, YouTube even relented and enabled users to switch to the old design. With time, people will probably adjust, as, apart from the initial shock, there is really no reason one would want to move back. [via Google Operating System]
