Asking for feedback can be a humbling experience, especially if you have become the place people consume media online. YouTube posted some of their favorite comments after a recent request for feedback on their redesign:
– “Wow, doesn’t that look like crap…that color red absolutely sucks. Who thought blood read would be good when someone comes home from work and wants to veg out at some stupid meager web videos and find this vibrant blood red that shocks the eyes into a panic attack resulting in a deadly heart attack. To all the Youtube CEO’s, talk to a psychiatrist, they can tell you what calm and soothing colors are.”
- “The preview is about as ugly as your present look, which I always assumed was designed by a room full of engineers without access to photoshop. ”
- “When the new layout loaded, i literally jerked away from the screen because of how unattractive it is! I then thought it might be a hacker’s joke.”
- “it looks like you went back to youtube 1.0.”
- “dude, this seriously looks like crap…wtf.. lol we are not blind dude.”
- “Ack! My eyes! My eyes, they’re burning!”
-”Nice, but how about a little more red?”
-”Ugly as ****.”
And removed the red. They’re looking for feedback again, enjoy the grey.
Four Eyed Monsters producer and OVW friend Arin Crumley weighs in with the first new comment:
You guys. For christ sake. You’ve redesigned the look but not the function. Are you out of your minds? Don’t you realize that the “videos” tab button is basically pointless to begin with. Why does it take you to the most viewed videos of the day. The chances of finding anything there are too low and it’s rewarding things that already have views. You need some more complex algorithms to find good videos. How about it automatically taking you to the videos your friends favorited. That would be smart. Or how about videos related to your google searches of the day, that would also be smart. Or videos inspired by your last.fm rss feed of music you’ve listened to that day. I think if you are going to bother giving youtube any face lifts they should be ones like that.
It isn’t easy being # 1. Most professional producers are going elsewhere.