Recently, YouTube’s “TestTube labs” rolled out a brand-new redesign called Cosmic Panda. Its new look may be one of the biggest changes to the website in recent years. Even though YouTube is the number one online video content-sharing site and the number two search engine after Google, it was apparent that it lacked much of the visual appeal when compared to such fast-growing platforms as Hulu and Vimeo.

So What’s New?

At first look, it is obvious YouTube was looking to enhance the overall video-viewing experience for the user when they rolled out Cosmic Panda. In order to do so, YouTube knew that the first thing they had to do was remove the bright white space accompanying much of the website. Instead, the Cosmic Panda experience looks to emphasize the video player by giving it a dark grey background, making it the brightest element on the screen.

In fact, not only has the new video player been enhanced visually, but also users are now able to adjust the player’s size easily by clicking on any of the four size options located directly below the progress bar. And to make the viewing experience even grander, playlists are now located in a horizontal row of sleek thumbnails right below the video player. This cleaner look allows the user to focus on what is important: video content.

In addition to enhancing the viewing experience of the video player and its accessories, YouTube has revamped the site further by removing the excessive links and video thumbnails. Now there are fewer thumbnail images of related video content, and those thumbnails that are located on the website are now larger and contain a thin grey outline, continuing to give it that clean, sleek design.

The Not-So-Pretty Side of Panda

Before you think YouTube’s redesign is all cute kittens and candy-coated twinkling stars, “the Panda” does have its dark side, especially for marketers. One of the biggest drawbacks to the new layout is the lack of branding on one’s channel. YouTube has focused its redesign efforts on making the channel page and the video page as seamless as possible, but they may have gone too far. Not only are there a lack of customization options, but there’s little room for any channel branding. Sure, there’s still room for you to upload your own custom background design, but gone are the options of customizing font and hyperlink colors to give your channel a more cohesive appearance.

YouTube has definitely taken a giant leap in a direction of blending web and television. The new design features allow users to view content in a more relaxed, lean-back-in-your-chair kind of way, ultimately making the comforts of your living room more accessible.

It’s important to point out that Cosmic Panda is still only in TestTube format – YouTube’s playground for new ideas and features. It’s likely something more permanent will take hold, but only time will tell. What do you think of the recent changes to YouTube’s interface, and will it become a permanent solution to how we watch our favorite vial videos?

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