Learning on YouTube

Context

Millions come to YouTube every day to learn, ranging from simple questions like “how do I tie a tie?” to life-changing education like studying for standardized tests or switching careers. Learning creators have changed millions of lives by explaining complex topics in clear, entertaining videos.

Our team was tasked with the problem: how might we supercharge learning on YouTube?

Users

This work focuses on three types of learners: upskillers, test-preppers, and life-long learners.For upskillers and lifelong learners, we focused on creating structure and helping learners stay on track. For test-preppers, we focused on helping them find answers fast. These work streams took place over a few years, often running in parallel.

Test-preppers

For test peppers, we focused on research with users in India and the US, where YouTube was a key companion for getting explanations to topics they didn't quite understand.

One key insight was learners wanted to see what was inside the video and get to the point they needed help with. A 15 minute video from their favorite creator was great, but learners are busy! We noticed one interesting behavior trend some learners would open the transcript on desktop and scroll within it to find key phrases, then skip to that point in the video.

We decided to experiment with a “search the transcript” feature to help learners. The first challenge was that transcripts weren't available on mobile! And many learners used their phone to study.

We developed several proposals for a transcript on mobile, including an MVP with unformatted text, and a more advanced version with better formatting. Users could tap to get to that point in the video, or long press to copy the text for their notes.

Later, we added the ability to search. Some details include word highlighting, fuzzy matching, and smart pausing/resuming for scrolling. We ditched the really well-formatted text for the first version, but made a happy compromise.

Launching transcripts

We launched mobile transcripts and search in transcripts on all educational videos in 2023. We saw x% of folks opening the transcript to search, and an x% increase on transcript opens on web.

Later on, the team iterated on highlighting, rich text formatting, and entrypoints to help learners navigate chunks of text.

Lifelong learners

Coming soon!