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YouTube Studio's launch and learn modal

38% of U.S. internet users visit YouTube at least once a day, which is hardly surprising. Where else can you learn how to make a Baked Alaska, laugh at epic fails and perfect your downward-facing dog? But what makes YouTube so successful is not YouTube itself; it is, of course, its creators.

To keep the content coming and the quality high, YouTube has to learn, iterate and build the right tools for their creators' needs. The part of the platform that does this is YouTube Studio, and they don't leave the upgrades they make to chance. User feedback is embraced from the get-go to push the studio towards perfection.

Why this is really good UX:

  • The benefit of a beta or an MVP is to get your code into the wild as soon as possible so it can be validated or disproved accurately by quantitative data. Instead of considering small samples of qualitative data—or internal opinions—you can start optimizing appropriately to the real needs, wants and desires of your users.
  • Including your users in the development of a product or service—like YouTube does here—generates considerable goodwill and loyalty towards your product. And when 93% of users say they are happy to give feedback, it is a mistake not to ask for it.
  • Happiness depends not on how well things are going but whether things are going better or worse than expected. So in UX, it's important to set the right expectations. This is why YouTube uses an “in construction” graphic and the CTA of “try it out” to set the right tone to keep their users happy.