Web/Mobile App Critique

 

    The app I chose to discuss is the YouTube mobile app. I chose this app because it is one of my favorite apps and has many options and ways to use it. YouTube started as a website that allowed people to upload videos, so it was a platform where people could sort and share videos. At this point, YouTube just celebrated 20 years of the first video being uploaded, “Me at the Zoo”, where one of the original website developers shared a small video of himself at the zoo. At this point, YouTube sorts through billions of videos. YouTube as a mobile app allows users to see different videos from education, music, podcasts, fitness, vlogs, shorts, etc. The app is straightforward; you can go ahead and select any video on the screen and start watching it. As a user, you can choose or search for videos and subscribe to channels that allow you to follow different creators to get a personal curation of other videos. The number of things you can do in the app is very well laid out for user friendliness.

    From top to bottom, YouTube has three options for you to cast, set up alerts, and use a search option. Below those options, you have a recommended list of things you can search for, like podcasts, gaming, or comedy. This option lets a user search by topic. In the middle of the screen, you find videos of your followers' creators and YouTube's recommended videos for the user. At the bottom of the screen you have five options, your Home bottom where you go back to the home screen, the shorts bottom where you access shorts, a plus bottom where a person can upload videos of your own, subscription bottom where you can see all you subscribed creators, and a you bottom where you access your profile and settings.

YouTube, as an app, has been running for years. It has been updated and modified to be where it's at, so it would be difficult to create changes they haven’t already considered. Still, three small changes I would make are auto-play well, screen lock, the ability to remove unwanted videos, and more control over the quality of the videos. The auto-play video feature is an old feature they originally had, but it is locked away behind a subscription-based pay-only feature. I believe the feature would bring in more people to the website. Some users like to listen to videos like podcasts or music, and don’t need to see the actual video. The reason behind the ability to remove unwanted video is that the home screen sometimes gets too cluttered, and it is difficult to find things you may enjoy, kind of like an unsubscribe button. The last change I would make is to be able to change the quality of the video; right now, your only choices are auto, higher picture quality, and data saver. These options are confusing, and users sometimes don’t know what they mean. Simplifying this option would be a user-friendly setting where the user can select what quality they want, and a reason behind using that setting.



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