Reflection Point: Usability, Accessibility and Ethics…and more
Let’s talk about Youtube.
I’m choosing Youtube as the product I use the most to reflect its usability, accessibility and ethics.
Just a quick background before I get into why Youtube is so important to me…
I grew up with Youtube. I remember going to my public library as a middle school kid to watch Youtube. I remember the days that 260P or 360P at its peak video quality it could play. People started to figure out that by adding “HQ” in the url, you could sometime change the quality to HQ or High Quality (I’m not sure if that’s the actually meaning, but its what I thought as a kid). The platform felt so pure. No frill and no nonsense. People were allowed to post whatever content. I spent hours watching basketball highlights by And-1 and such to practice my skills.
The most important thing I learned from Youtube was relatability.
There weren’t many Asian figures to look up to growing up. While I wasn’t opposed to regular figures in the media, but it’s hard to relate when you feel as they haven’t gone through same as you. But then, Youtube came along.
I started to see peers posting videos about their Identity as an Asian American. These so-called “YouTubers” started to share their stories. I naturally followed a lot of Asian Americans such as KevJumba, Gabe Bondoc, Melissa Polinar, WongFu, Jeremy Passion and so much more. They shared their experiences of their own encounters living in America.
All that to say, I felt comfort knowing that I wasn’t alone feeling alone. And hence,
Relatability.
Now, back to the subject at hand. YouTube has grown immensely especially with its usability, accessibility and growing concerns ethicality.
For this article, I would like to focus on usability.
By definition, Usability in the UX world is:
“I am able to use the product easily.”
A very simple definition, but seems hard to execute in the real world. With growing technology, businesses are implementing the use of UX design to gain users and also retain them.
According to Youtube, there are 2 Billion users monthly. 2 BILLION USERS.
But a crazier stat is that there are 34.6 Billion visitors monthly. YouTube is only behind the #1 website, which is Google at 92.5 Billion. Insane.
So what makes Youtube so… Usable.
By definition, Youtube has incredible Usability. You can literally find anything on Youtube. I have learned to do anything on it. How to change oil, jumping a car safely, plumbing, painting, a polar bear survival, and a fellow bison betraying another. (Check it out here if you want…)
The site is so easy to use. On the search bar, you can type in whatever you need or feel like watching. I am sure you’ve heard someone or even yourself going into the rabbit-hole of Youtube, which basically means that you want these recommended videos for hours on end. I have done an all-nighter watching National Geographic channel. Crazy, I know.
I digress.
In the lecture, Usability heuristics, talks about a set of guidelines used to assess the usability of an interface. One of the categories in heuristics is efficiency. Just like Google, you just type in whatever you are searching for to learn or just to watch. If you don’t have anything to watch specifically, there are sections like trending, recommended, subscribed and more.
To wrap things up, the data speaks for itself when there are 34.6 Billion visitors monthly. As a developing designer, I am constantly looking at the products I use daily to understand its usability, accessibility, and ethics. When those things are done well, it’s a recipe for success.