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YouTube Create: Understanding teen creators

DIARY STUDY, INTERVIEWS

2022

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How might we deeply understand
the challenges and needs of teen mobile video creators
and build a new one stop solution mobile editing app?

Solution

We conducted research over a period of one month with teens aged 13-18 years old, with our major focus on a diary study that helped gather detailed contextual information over real time. We also did preliminary 30-minute interviews and in-depth 60-minute interviews after our diary study to dig deeper with custom made questions. This research led to the launch of YouTube Create.

Role

Associate UX Researcher in a team of 2 UXRs, along with the Lead Researcher. We split all India research tasks between us equally. A global study was run simultaneously across three regions - the US, Brazil and India. Sharing of findings was a key part of research progress. Periodic check-ins were also held with YouTube's in-house UXR team to pivot based on engineering and design teams' feedback.

UX Research Process

1.

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Targeted

recruiting

2.

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30-minute preliminary interview

3.

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5-day

diary study

4.

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60-minute

in-depth

interview

5.

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Findings

Targeted recruiting

​Six participants were recruited based on saturation point theory and client requirement.​ We planned for eight participants for the first and second phase to buffer for drop-outs seen in diary studies. In the end, all eight participants were included in the third phase as we got valuable data.

Participant criteria

  • Aged 13-18 years from India
     

  • Three user groups based on video type: long form (typically create videos >1 minute), short form (typically create videos <60 seconds), novice (do not post publicly)

Criteria for participant knowledge

  • Long form users must have >250 followers and have uploaded >2 videos

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  • Short form users must have >1000 followers and have uploaded >4 videos

30-minute
preliminary interview

Initial 30-minute preliminary interviews were conducted with all participants. This session had two objectives:

  • Primary objective: Onboard participants to diary study app Indeemo and set groundwork for our month-long interaction with them. 

  • Secondary objective: Collect introductory data through questions tailored for each user group.

​

Preliminary data included the kind of videos participants liked to create, their decision making process, softwares they used, audiences they wanted to reach, role models, how they chose their posting platform and what they hoped to gain through posts.

The diary study understood every stage of the
video making process, from ideation to posting, in real time.

5-day diary study

Each stage of the video making process was understood through our diary study, from ideation to posting. Tasks ranged from 5 to 15 minutes and could be completed sequentially at any point during the study.

​

Questions explored included:​

  • How do participants ideate about content?

  • How do they set up?

  • What hardware and software do they use?

  • Does someone help them shoot?

  • Do they get parental consent?

  • Most importantly - how do they edit?

  • Where and how do they post?

​

Data collection was made easy with remote diary study research tool, Indeemo.  We analysed data collected from this study before our final interviews. 

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60-minute
in-depth interview

This stage deep dived into participant experiences in video editing. Time was given to personalised questions that arose through diary submissions.

 

Themes included:

  • Issues faced while creating and editing a video.

  • Levels of interest in having features like splicing, zooming, panning, emojis and AR elements.

  • Protecting mental health and privacy online.

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Cross-geo analysis

Analysis involved cross-geo collaboration with teams in Brazil and the US running the same study in their regions.

 

Affinity mapping of user sentiments both within and across regions helped balance generalised and market specific findings. We chose not to respond to each other's findings as this created theoretical differentiation not grounded in user findings.

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Findings

Below are select findings from the project. All findings listed in the edit needs section have been addressed in YouTube Create.

Complete findings available on request.

Edit needs findings

  • Removing background noise while editing feels impossible, and ruins video.
     

  • Using copyrighted music gets you in trouble, but it's hard to know how to track what's allowed.
     

  • Users toggle between multiple apps to access all features, feel the need for a one-stop-shop.

Mental model findings

  • Features trump simplicity, but ease of use is important too.
     

  • Ideation and recording are the only two essential steps in creation. Editing and even upload are optional.
     

  • Creating is highly trend based and originality is not a factor.

Learnings from project

  • Legal consent is central to UXR, but since children cannot give consent, parents must be asked for consent and reassured of their child's safety.

  • Children tend to be more nervous about doing the wrong thing. Time must be taken to create a comfortable space. 

  • When creating a new app from scratch, visions of what its 'purpose' is can vary - our findings showed that unlike YouTube's engineering team, users didn't find editing 'fun'. Research needs to push back if findings contradict assumptions.

Affinity mapping of user sentiments, both within and across regions, helped balance generalised and market specific findings.

Product launch!

In September 2023, Youtube announced YouTube Create, it's new editing app.

 

It is now available for Beta testing in eight markets worldwide - US, UK, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, South Korea and Singapore.

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