UI/UX Website Analysis

Sep 16

YouTube vs DailyMotion

I did a website analysis comparing the UI and UX design of two video sharing websites: YouTube and DailyMotion.

I use YouTube a lot, so there is a bias there because of my familiarity with how it works.

I have used DailyMotion occasionally, usually if it is the only place that a certain video can be found.

In this comparison, I created FEEL/NEED statements for each site. FEEL/NEED statements help elucidate someone’s opinion on certain features. They describe how the aspect makes you FEEL and what NEEDS are or are not being met by the product.

DailyMotion

Homepage

Videos playing automatically makes me FEEL ANXIOUS and ANNOYED because my NEED for CHOICE and EASE is not being met.

The DailyMotion homepage presents you with a single column of large videos to explore. These videos will start playing automatically if you stay still for a few seconds.

The sound remains off, but it still causes annoyance because I cannot stop to look at a title and thumbnail without it playing. It also causes anxiety because it feels like there is no place to stop and rest while browsing.

Sidebar

The sidebar disappearing when I click a category makes me FEEL ANNOYED because my NEED for CHOICE is not being met.

The homepage has a bar on the left side of the screen. It contains popular channels as well as categories to explore. However, if you decide to click one of these categories, the next page will not have a sidebar. This means that to choose a different one, you have to go back. It is a small thing, but it is still unnecessary with how it wastes time and patience.

The pop-ups from the search bar make me FEEL INDIFFERENT because my NEED for SPACE and FREEDOM is not being met.

When clicking the search bar, a pop-up appears showing a bunch of other content. I am not sure if this is necessary if you are trying to search for a specific thing; these are the same items shown on the homepage. Some people might find it overwhelming or intrusive as well.

Clicking search includes a pop-up of content

Video Overview

The overview of videos makes me FEEL CALM because my NEED for CLARITY is being met.

The site has a consistent grid structure when displaying videos that shows four of them in a row. It’s simple and basic but provides a clear overview of all the videos while browsing. It is clean and has no obtrusive elements like ads.

Ads

The ads next to a video make me FEEL CONFUSED but also CONTENT because my NEED for SPACE is being met.

When watching a video, the area next to other recommended videos contains advertisements. Some are still images, but many are videos that only play sound if you hover over them. There are three of them and for some reason they are constantly changing. I don’t quite understand why they keep switching and reloading but if you are watching a video in full screen, you wouldn’t see them anyway.

Comments

Comments having text formatting options makes me FEEL DELIGHTED because my NEED for EASE and INCLUSION is being met.

Having text formatting options like italics and bold included is a clever quality of life feature for users. On YouTube, to use these formats you must know what characters to put around your text: underscores for _italics_, asterisks for *bold*, and hyphens for -strikethrough.- Even knowing these tricks, sometimes the placement of characters and spaces causes the formatting to not work. Including these and more as selectable options removes the guesswork and knowledge gap.

Rewind/Fast Forward

Rewinding and fast forwarding 10 seconds makes me FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE because my NEED for CHOICE and SPACE is not met.

Clicking the left and right arrows to go back and forth in a video jumps 10 seconds either direction. It might just be a personal thing, but this makes me feel uncomfortable because sometimes I only want to see something that I just missed and going back 10 seconds feels like too far. Rewatching that much to see a small moment makes me feel annoyed and impatient.

Video Options

The location of the video options makes me FEEL INDIFFERENT because my NEED for EASE is not being met.

Options like volume, captions, and full screen are on the bottom of the video screen. However, the settings icon is in the top right. This means that to change key properties like video quality and speed, a user has to move their mouse from the bottom to the top.

It is not far away, but it is still better to reduce the amount of movement a user has to do.

According to the article The Psychology of UX design by Ish∆n, Fitt’s Law is a law stating that the time it takes to move something like a mouse cursor across a screen is the distance divided by the size of the target. These variables change between mobile and desktop with things like button sizes. Therefore, overall, “The distance between a user’s task/attention area and the task-related button should be kept as short as possible in distance” (Ish∆n).

YouTube

Side Menu

The side menu makes me FEEL CONTENT because my NEED for CLARITY is being met.

The YouTube side menu is divided into a few sections containing subcategories. The top has three main ones, while the You section has user-specific areas like channel, history, and playlists. If signed in, below that is Subscriptions. Finally, there is Explore with different topics to look into. It is organized nicely with good hierarchy of most to least important/relevant. It is also a hamburger menu that can close out of the way if desired.

Overview

The overview of videos makes me FEEL INTERESTED because my NEED for CLARITY is being met.

The videos are presented in a simple grid layout for the top section of the homepage. With the side menu open, there are three in a row and with it closed, there are four. The thumbnails are large and fill the space, making it easy to focus on individual videos and become interested in watching one. A couple of the spaces are taken up by ads; some may find this intrusive, though they act like all the other videos besides saying “sponsored” and having links below them.

Video Options

The video options make me FEEL CONTENT because my NEED for EASE is being met.

All the main video control elements are located on the bottom bar of the video. Users can easily change the viewing mode, turn on captions, or change the quality or speed of the video. These related components are all gathered together.