Youtube Gifts
Categories
Product Design
Team
Project
Youtube Gifts
Timeline
3.5 months
Year
2025
This summer I was a UX Design Intern on YouTube's Paid Digital Goods team, working on gifting — digital items viewers purchase to show appreciation for creators during live streams. My primary project is under NDA. Alongside it, I picked up two additional projects through my own initiative: AR Gifts, the first AR gift release on the platform, and Dog Day Gifts, a holiday asset suite I took from concept to engineering handoff. Both shipped.
This summer I was a UX Design Intern on YouTube's Paid Digital Goods team, working on gifting — digital items viewers purchase to show appreciation for creators during live streams. My primary project is under NDA. Alongside it, I picked up two additional projects through my own initiative: AR Gifts, the first AR gift release on the platform, and Dog Day Gifts, a holiday asset suite I took from concept to engineering handoff. Both shipped.
AR Gifts was the first set of augmented reality gifts ever released on YouTube — effects that overlay directly onto a creator's face during a live stream, triggered by a viewer's gift. My role was to test each effect against the real UI, document what was and wasn't working, and iterate directly in the YouTube Effects editor. The core design challenge was balance: how do you create an immersive, memorable gift moment without visually overwhelming the stream itself? Where effects were cluttering the lower third — particularly the Flowers crown — I made edits in the editor directly rather than filing feedback, and presented the findings in a cross-team design review. The documentation I produced was used across the team.
AR Gifts was the first set of augmented reality gifts ever released on YouTube — effects that overlay directly onto a creator's face during a live stream, triggered by a viewer's gift. My role was to test each effect against the real UI, document what was and wasn't working, and iterate directly in the YouTube Effects editor. The core design challenge was balance: how do you create an immersive, memorable gift moment without visually overwhelming the stream itself? Where effects were cluttering the lower third — particularly the Flowers crown — I made edits in the editor directly rather than filing feedback, and presented the findings in a cross-team design review. The documentation I produced was used across the team.
Dog Day Gifts had a faster timeline and a lower release threshold, but the stakes were real. Working with my host, I generated over ten gift concepts using internal tools and Adobe, evaluating each against emotional clarity, readability, and demographic appeal across teen, women, and gaming audiences. We mapped the final candidates across five messaging territories to ensure the suite expressed the full range of what a viewer might want to send, not just what looked good at full size.
The Dog Day suite released on August 26. The Howling Husky, one of my favorites because I love huskies and partly because I go to the University of Washington (Go Huskies!), became the number one gift on YouTube since its release, driving 9% of platform gift revenue on its own in just a week. It was converted from a holiday-only asset to a permanent gift.
Dog Day Gifts had a faster timeline and a lower release threshold, but the stakes were real. Working with my host, I generated over ten gift concepts using internal tools and Adobe, evaluating each against emotional clarity, readability, and demographic appeal across teen, women, and gaming audiences. We mapped the final candidates across five messaging territories to ensure the suite expressed the full range of what a viewer might want to send, not just what looked good at full size.
The Dog Day suite released on August 26. The Howling Husky, one of my favorites because I love huskies and partly because I go to the University of Washington (Go Huskies!), became the number one gift on YouTube since its release, driving 9% of platform gift revenue on its own in just a week. It was converted from a holiday-only asset to a permanent gift.
