HomeBlogUI/UX Design: What is YouTube Ambient Mode
UI/UX Design: What is YouTube Ambient Mode
It’s simple for items to get lost in the shuffle given all the daily changes that major product ecosystems experience.
Nevertheless, innovations do occasionally appear that, while perhaps not quite ground-breaking, nonetheless improve UX in novel ways.
Today, we’ll discuss YouTube’s new Ambient Mode, how it functions, and why it’s an excellent addition to the site’s user interface.
We questioned whether it was time to give YouTube a minor facelift as it had just turned 17 this year. As a result, we solicited feedback from tens of thousands of visitors worldwide and learned that they preferred a simpler, livelier design that more accurately reflected our mission.
We are launching a new design and a number of features that will enhance how people watch videos while also providing a more contemporary and immersive viewing experience. But don’t worry, we’re still fundamentally the same YouTube that you know and love.
https://blog.youtube/
YouTube’s Ambient Mode
YouTube intended to replicate the scene in which light is emitted from a screen in a dim environment. Ambient Mode seeks to address this concept by adjusting the backdrop colour of the app to the video that is the emphasis.
Ambient Mode’s goal is to draw attention to the watch page and draw viewers there. But you can only use this function if Dark Theme is activated. It’s also accessible on the web and mobile devices.
Leveraging the HTML canvas element, an image of the video is captured using JavaScript, which is then drawn to the canvas behind the video itself, and the blur effect is applied.
This copy of the video exists as an image only, so it provides a richer aesthetic presentation without compromising on performance.
As applied, we get a similar effect.
The changes are unobtrusive
While the changes are definitely noticeable, I didn’t actually see it until I was watching a brighter video. This feature was added without consulting me first, but because its so unobtrusive, I didn’t mind.
The output adds depth
I never would have thought to ask for a feature like this, but it does add a certain amount of depth to the UI that it just didn’t have before.
What’s nice is that, because its just a copy of the above video, the logic to get this type of effect to run is relatively minimal compared to some of the other web-based UI effects that I’ve seen.
Its device and performance sensitive
What I really like about this effect is that it appears to be running on the desktop version of YT as an initial rollout, but doesn’t run by default on iOS or Android.
I checked the mobile dark version of YT and, interestingly, it does look like it’s available there if you’re already in dark mode.
What this means is that considerations were made to and for performance so that no one took a noticeable hit on rollout.
https://nicklawrencedesign.com/
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