iJustine Helps YouTube Pimp Its New Channel Layout

Warranted or not, YouTube‘s new layout has been met with plenty of scorn and mockery. Still, the video sharing leader is continuing to implement further changes. YouTube’s new channel layout has gone into effect, and the site is hoping a little celebrity appeal helps lessen the amount of vitriol from disgruntled users.

Top creator iJustine has written a blog post on the YouTube creator blog running through the changes and advising channel owners how best to implement new content. In addition, she has released a video where she previews the new features and shows how she has utilized them on her page.

The main change is on channel pages themselves, where content is now streamlined into one long column. Users can customize which boxes appear on their channel. iJustine is utilizing recent upload, playlist, and top upload boxes, but there are other options. On LOUD’s new setup, users can click through the channel’s weekly schedule, while Epic Meal Time has chosen to highlight specific playlists. There are a huge number of combinations.

Creators can now create a channel trailer to play when unsubscribed viewers first access the channel. This is meant to create synergy with the subscription guide, which is prominently featured in the new layout.

Also, YouTube is now helping users adopt a single banner image across all devices, expanding or shrinking it based on screen size. According to iJustine, creating a malleable banner is a pain in the ass, but it’s something to at least consider.

Of course, there is already plenty of criticism heaped upon the new changes, with creators finding it to be bland, sterile, and lacking in terms of artistic choices (the new layout removes background images from channels.) There’s even a petition floating around to get things back to the way they were. In the end, scorned creators will have to adapt or take their videos somewhere else. It’s Google’s way or the highway.