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YouTube Subscription Channels ReDesign

"Organizing Subscription Content Through Collection Folders"

Role: UX Designer

Duration: July - August, 2025

Tools: Canva | Figma | Pixelmator Pro

Reading Time: 6 minutes

tl;dr

The YouTube subscription feed can be overwhelming for users with many subscriptions, making it difficult to find desired content. This case study proposes a "Channel Folders" feature to solve this problem.

The redesign would allow users to:

Create custom folders to organize their subscriptions (e.g., "UX Design," "News").
Filter their feed by selecting a specific folder, seeing only videos from those channels.
Manage their folders easily through a new interface.

This change aims to reduce content overload, improve content discovery, and increase user satisfaction by giving them more control over their subscription feed.

Project Overview

This case study outlines the proposed redesign of the YouTube subscription user interface, introducing a "Channel Folders" feature. The current YouTube subscription experience becomes increasingly cumbersome for users with a large number of subscribed channels, leading to content overload and difficulty in discovering relevant videos. By enabling users to organize channels into custom, topic-based folders, this redesign aims to significantly enhance content discoverability, reduce cognitive load, and improve overall user engagement and satisfaction within their subscription feed.

The Problem: Subscription Overload

YouTube's current subscription feed presents videos in a chronological stream, regardless of content category or user interest. While simple, this approach creates significant challenges for users who subscribe to a diverse and large number of channels:

1. Overwhelming Choice Paralysis

Users with 100+ subscriptions face an endless, mixed feed
No way to browse content based on current mood or intent
Algorithm-driven recommendations don't align with intentional content consumption

2. Context Switching Challenges

A user interested in both professional development (UX design) and personal hobbies (interior design) sees all content mixed together
No separation between educational content and entertainment
Language barriers when subscribed to channels in multiple languages

3. Poor Content Discovery

New uploads from less frequently watched channels get buried
No visual hierarchy to distinguish between different types of content
Difficult to find specific types of content when needed

Screen Recording 2025-07-23 at 10.34.25 PM.mov

Video of Long Subscription List

The Goals

Reduce cognitive load during subscription browsing
Enable contextual content discovery based on user intent
Improve content equity for all subscribed channels
Maintain discoverability while adding organization

Research

Exploratory Interviews (5 participants, 20-30 minutes each)

- - Screen-shared navigation of current YouTube subscriptions
  - Journey mapping of typical content discovery sessions
  - Pain point identification and prioritization

Behavioral Analysis

- - Observed real browsing sessions via screen recordings
  - Tracked time-to-content metrics in current interface
  - Analyzed subscription management behaviors

Key Insights

Mental Model Mismatch: Users naturally think in categories, but YouTube presents chronological streams
Context-Dependent Consumption: 73% of users have distinct "modes" when browsing (learning, entertainment, background)
Language Barriers: Multilingual users need content separation by language
Discovery vs. Consumption: Users need both focused browsing and serendipitous discovery

User Persona

Persona

Key Considerations

Integration with Existing UI: The new features were designed to seamlessly integrate into YouTube's familiar layout, primarily utilizing the existing left-hand sidebar for folder navigation.
Clarity and Simplicity: Despite adding new functionality, the aim was to keep the interface clean and intuitive, avoiding unnecessary complexity.
Flexibility: Allowing channels to belong to multiple folders was a crucial decision to cater to diverse content overlaps.
Multiple Content Views: Providing both a traditional "grid view" and a more information-dense "list view" for videos within folders caters to different user preferences. The "Channels in Folder" view provides a high-level overview of the channels themselves.

Design

The Solution: Channel Folders

The proposed solution introduces a "Channel Folders" feature, allowing users to create custom, named collections of their subscribed channels. This transforms the monolithic subscription feed into an organized, user-centric content hub.

Core Features

Custom Folder Creation: Users can create new folders and assign descriptive names (e.g., "UX Design," "Interior Design," "Woodworking," "News & Current Events"). This is initiated via an "Add New Folder" button in the sidebar or within the "Manage Folders" modal.
Channel Assignment: Channels can be easily added to one or multiple folders. This allows for flexible organization, accommodating channels that span multiple interests. This would ideally be supported by drag-and-drop functionality from an "All Channels" view or a "Add to Folder" option on individual channel pages.
Folder-Specific Feeds: Clicking on a folder in the sidebar displays a feed containing only videos from channels within that specific folder, filtered chronologically.
"Channels in Folder" View: Within a folder's view, users can switch to a dedicated display showing only the channel avatars and names associated with that folder, providing a quick overview and direct access to channel pages. This view, as seen in the wireframe, presents channel cards with their avatars, names, subscriber counts, and subscription status.
Unread Indicators: Folders in the sidebar show a clear indicator for the number of unread videos within them, providing at-a-glance information about new content.
Intuitive Management: A dedicated "Manage Folders" interface allows users to easily rename, delete, and add new folders, ensuring these administrative tasks are accessible but not cluttering the primary browsing experience.
Multiple Content Views: Users can toggle between a traditional "Grid View" (showing video thumbnails in a grid) and a more information-dense "List View" (showing videos in a vertical list format with larger titles and details) for videos within folders.

User Flow Examples

Primary Flow: Focused Learning Session

Intent: User wants to learn UX design after work
Action: Clicks "UX & Design" folder in sidebar
Result: Sees 8 new videos from 5 design channels
Discovery: Notices new tutorial from less-watched channel
Engagement: Watches 3 videos in focused session

Secondary Flow: Casual Entertainment Browsing

Intent: User wants light entertainment during lunch
Action: Switches to "Entertainment" folder
Result: Browses visually appealing thumbnails in grid view
Discovery: Finds new video from forgotten subscription
Serendipity: Discovers related channel through sidebar suggestions

Tertiary Flow: Channel Management

Intent: User wants to organize newly subscribed channels
Action: Opens "Manage Folders" modal
Result: Sees auto-suggested categorizations
Customization: Adjusts folder assignments, creates custom folder
Maintenance: Sets up folder-specific notification preferences

Low-Fidelity Wireframe

High-Fidelity Wireframe

Sidebar Enhancement: The left sidebar now includes a prominent "Your Folders" section, listing custom folders with unread counts. "Add New Folder" and "Manage Folders" buttons provide clear entry points for folder creation and editing.
Main Content Area Adaptation: The main content area dynamically updates to display the feed of the selected folder. The title clearly indicates the current view (e.g., "UX Design Folder").
View Toggles: Buttons for "Grid View", "List View", and "Channels in Folder" allow users to quickly switch how content is displayed within a folder.
Grid View: Displays video thumbnails in a multi-column layout, ideal for visual browsing.
List View: Presents videos in a vertical list, providing more space for titles and descriptions, suitable for quick scanning.
Channels in Folder View: This view showcases channel cards with their circular avatars, names, subscriber counts, and subscription status, offering a quick way to browse channels within a specific interest.
Folder Management Modal: A modal overlay provides a centralized place to rename, delete, and add new folders, ensuring these administrative tasks are accessible but not cluttering the primary browsing experience.

Anticipated Impact

Implementing the Channel Folders feature is expected to yield several significant benefits:

Decreased time to find desired content: Measured by tracking the average time from a user landing on the subscriptions page to them initiating playback of a video from a specific folder.
Increased engagement with subscribed channels: Tracked by an increase in the average number of unique subscribed channels watched per user session within the folder views.
Higher user satisfaction with subscription management: Measured through post-feature release surveys and NPS (Net Promoter Score).

Lessons Learned

Mental Models Matter: Users' existing organizational patterns (email folders, file systems) strongly influenced their expectations for content organization.
Context Is King: The same user behaves completely differently when seeking education vs. entertainment vs. background content.
Automation Acceptance: Users embraced AI-powered categorization when they maintained override control and could understand the logic.

Conclusion

The Channel Folders feature represents a fundamental shift from algorithm-driven content discovery to user-empowered content organization. By combining intelligent automation with user control, we've created a solution that scales with users' diverse and evolving interests while maintaining the serendipitous discovery that makes YouTube engaging.

This project demonstrates the value of deep user research, iterative design, and technical feasibility consideration in creating features that genuinely improve user experience. The folder-based approach not only solved the immediate problem of subscription overwhelm but opened new possibilities for personalized content consumption and creator-audience connection.

Most importantly, this redesign puts users back in control of their content experience while leveraging YouTube's strengths in content recommendation and discovery. It's a solution that grows with users, adapts to their changing interests, and makes the vast YouTube ecosystem more navigable and personally relevant.

The success of this feature validates the approach of starting with user problems, designing for flexibility and control, and implementing with careful attention to performance and accessibility. It serves as a model for how platform features can enhance rather than replace human agency in content curation and discovery.

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