YouTube Watch Party - Feature Addition

75% of users interviewed said they would use a watch party feature (on any service).

Sharing YouTube videos with others is quite common.

Ease of use/lack of instructions were the biggest complaints for sharing videos using current methods.

Having a live chat and clear instructions were the most wanted features for a watch party.

Many users wanted a guided tutorial that could be accessed at any time.

Ability to mute others in chat, a session play queue, and a separate watch history were also highly favored.

Many users were divided about how they would like the suggested videos to work.

Many of the most popular streaming services (Hulu, Prime, etc.) already have a watch party feature.

Even Facebook Watch has a similar feature.

There are also many 3rd party services that allow you to watch almost any video service with others.

Friend list showing who’s online

Recommendations based on watch party’s likes

Live chat on the side of the video (think livestreaming style)

Choosing a specific time to send the invites when inviting from a video player page

Starting a watch party from the home page

Starting a watch party from a video page

Joining and participating in a watch party

57% overall success rate

When setting up the test I made some errors which resulted in lower scores, however I was still able to get a very clear idea of what was and wasn’t working thanks to the heatmaps.

I also didn’t word the instructions very clearly, as evident with the large amount of misclicks on some screens.

The link on the homepage didn’t stand out enough to users.

The last user flow had too many tasks in one and people were getting lost.

When shrinking the invite screen to the bottom while the user waits for others to join was hard to see.

Users wanted the ability to start the session without typing a name for the session.

75% overall success rate

I added a required feedback survey at the end this time and all except one user dropped out of the test once it got to the feedback, which skewed the results.

However, judging from the heatmaps I can tell that the changes I made were the right call and improved the flow drastically.

I highlighted the watch party link on the homepage using YouTube’s own gradient highlight that is used on the ‘New to you’ tab.

Made the modal that was shrunk to the bottom pop up in the center when the party was ready.

Allowed users to start a party without naming it first.

Changed the wording for the invite button on the video player page.

Split the 3rd flow into 3 separate tasks to ease confusion.

Improved the wording on the task instructions.