Redesigning Youtube’s AI Features

Redesigning Youtube’s AI-features that helps users discover relevant information faster by hovering summaries, intelligent Q&A, and personalized recommendations.

Timeline
UXR: Feb-Mar 2025
Design: Apl 2025

Roles

UX Designer
UX Researcher

Team

Yu Sun (Engineer)

Tools

Figma

Highlights

Smarter Search aided by AI Conversations

Smart Analysis and Chaptering that helps navigating videos and learning efficiency.

Optional Drop-Down AI Summary.

As a regular user of YouTube, I often turn to the platform to learn new things. Recently, during a conversation with my engineering friend about our research habits, he shared that he'd noticed YouTube's new AI features occasionally appearing in his feed. However, he found them to be lacking in usefulness.

This exchange made me wonder: could there be opportunities to redesign YouTube's features to enhance their effectiveness?

Current Youtube AI

I started by investigating how Youtube integrates AI into its current Interface. Most AI features no longer appear on my devices, so I looked into other users’ discussions about the features.

I learned on Youtube’s official blogs that Youtube has experimented with AI in quite a few ways in the past year. I looked into the features that gained the most discussions online — the AI summary/Q&A tool.

AI Summaries and Q&As under videos in the video page‘s comment section

via Reddit forums

AI Summaries in the comments section

via Reddit forums

AI Summaries next to the video previews

via Reddit forums

Research

Secondary

I started my research process by investigating how the online community is responding to the AI implementation to find pain points. Ultimately, the Reddit forum r/YouTube gave me the most detailed and relevant feedback on pain points within the AI feature.

  • Lack of control: No option to opt out of AI summaries.

  • Unnecessary summaries: Applies to non-verbal content like music or art.

  • Redundancy: Summaries repeat what creators already describe.

  • Spoilers: AI summaries sometimes reveal too much of the content.

Users complained most notably about the following four aspects:

How can YouTube AI better meet users' needs?

Primary(Interviews)

I interviewed 5 daily YouTube users ages 18-40 about their habits, motivations, and frustrations. Additionally, I sent 15 screener surveys to those who couldn't attend interviews.

Findings:
More than 70% of interviewees mentioned that they heavily rely on YouTube for visual learning and entertainment.

  • Alex (Alias)

    “I especially like to use Youtube if it is a visual thing I need to do and I don’t know how to, or if its coding/math that needs visuals. As someone who has ADHD, learning in a video format helps me stay more engaged.”

  • Emmett (Alias)

    “YouTube is my go-to platform when I want to learn about a topic in-depth due to its engaging and comprehensive tutorials and lectures.”

User Pain Points with current Youtube

Inefficient Discovery

Users struggle to find high-quality, in-depth videos quickly, often wasting time browsing irrelevant or misleading content.

Content Length

Long videos demand too much attention, while Shorts encourage addictive, shallow scrolling — neither format fully supports intentional learning.

  1. How might we redesign Youtube’s AI feature in a mindful manner that doesn’t take away the agency from users?

  2. How might the re-designed features help increase learning efficiency for those who are in need?

Research Summary & Design Opportunities

The current YouTube AI features appear to be intrusive and coercive for users, pushing them towards AI contents without having options. Most users watch videos to have fun: when AI is too involved, the fun is gone. It's important to give users choices to use YouTube without AI.

AI can help by summarizing content, answering questions, and conducting smart research, saving users from misleading videos and wasted time.

Ideations

Designing Hovering Summaries

Designing Playing Page Features

Designing Smart Search & Chatbox

Design Explorations

Initial Designs

Optional Drop-Down Summary

I updated AI summaries based on user feedback about aggressive content. Users interested in videos can find summaries in dropdown menus on the main page.

Smart Search

Added AI recommendations to the search bar and a chat box. It assists with research, suggests content, customizes searches, and provides answers and timestamps for videos based on your inquiries.

Current

Searching videos provides irrelevant searches that do not match the users’ research interests.

Redesigned Low-fidelity Prototype

Usability Testing

I asked a couple of Youtuber friends who had previously filled out my survey for feedback on each of the designs.

Chatbox Feedback

  • A separate chatbox page feels too much like a ChatGPT-style assistant.

  • Users know the search terms but struggle to decide where to start watching.

  • Don’t want spoilers from Chatbox summaries, but sometimes want to see video sections.

AI Summary Feedback

  • The dots indicating the AI feature are too hidden and easy to miss.

  • Clickable summaries could work, but users expect the traditional YouTube UI, so hover actions might be more effective.

  • A bigger exit or return button could improve navigation, as users find it hard to move forward and backward.

One of my friends is a UI/UX designer. Here is her comments on my Figma page:

Final Design

Smart Chaptering which allows users to find video sections easily without relying on creator tags, preventing spoilers from summaries.

Smart Search replaced the AI Chatbox page with a sparkle icon in the search bar. Clicking it opens a smart search for users to ask questions and customize results for YouTube. Users can add questions, refinements, and photos.