YouTube is trialling a redesign of its desktop product, offering an advanced look and soliciting feedback on the changes. The new look is based on the Material Design philosophy, an approach to presenting digital experiences. According to a blog post announcing the redesign, YouTube said the key principles are simplicity, consistency, and beauty.
In practice, that means a somewhat cleaner and less cluttered interface. However, a cursory look shows that few of critical features have changed their location within the product. The biggest change is to the profile pages, which now have different banner image sizes and menu layout. Many of the darker backgrounds have also been replaced, making the desktop display mostly white or light gray.