Going through tubes is not the sole domain of Super Mario. For decades now, people stare at “tubes” to receive their portion of entertainment or to simply temporarily escape their daily routine. The sole subject of this post is dedicated to our most used and popular Tube, the YouTube. We may take it for granted or sometimes forget, but this amazing service was not always available for us. Only 12 years ago there was nothing like it. Although it was not what it’s like today – the free streaming video service has revolutionized the way we consume media from the very start. Short one and a half years after the company was founded by three ex-PayPal employees, Google has purchased it. Since then their service and technology has improved and it’s a valuable asset to the firm and us, the consumers.
The timing of this post is not accidental. Recently, YouTube has changed it’s logo. Unlike the Skype case I brought up earlier – this change was probably made for different reasons.The main reason that was given to the public is such: The new logo is more responsive and adaptive to a wider range of screens, resolutions and devices.
Yes it’s true that a portion of the logo’s soul has been abandoned, since it has kept a pretty stable concept from the very start till now (as the word “Tube” was always at the center if the figure that symbolized the old TV, also known as tube). Now, this figure contains the “play” symbol, while the “YouTube” logotype is placed by its side. Needles to say that the reason many of us didn’t notice the change is probably because we are already very familiar with the YouTube icon (the red figure with the play symbol).
In my humble opinion, the update is not bad. More important – it is being backed up by UI and UX changes. Honestly, I like the recent works Google has done on Material Design, unifying and aligning a design system that both looks great and has a systematic functional and understandable logic behind it.