1️⃣ Mobile Youtube is a very strange place.
One day I was scrolling.
For some unknown reason, YouTube recommended this weird video to me.
The thumbnail had no design
The title was plain.
And for some mysterious reason... I clicked.
It wasn’t a clickbait. The monkey delivered exactly what the title promised, nothing more, nothing less.
And for reasons I still don’t quite understand, I just couldn’t stop rewatching. I hope you’re not weird like me.
But if you are, welcome to the club.
And if you’re not, I’m sure you’ve had that one strange video that hooked you for no good reason.
But why?
2️⃣ The Reality of Mobile: The Scroll
I kept asking myself — how can I do this to other people?
Most people watch YouTube on mobile.
Sometimes we open channels we already know.
Other times, we’re not even looking for anything
It’s not “searching for content”
it’s like hoping something interesting finds us
Think about it — how many times have you opened YouTube
not because you wanted to, but because your thumb did?
You told yourself “just one video,”
and three hours later you were deep into “why pigeons hate drones.”
That’s the mindset your thumbnail has to break through.
Not curiosity — addiction.
Its job isn’t to convince a focused viewer,
It’s to interrupt a distracted one.
How?
3️⃣ The Scroll Stopper
Unlike Home Feed, where viewers see a allow of thumbnails
On mobile, viewers see one thumbnail at a time — but they’re already thinking about the next one.
The thumb moves by itself.
The thumbnail appears first, then the title.
The viewer first sees the thumbnail, if it’s interesting VISUALLY, then they read the title.
They’re not asking, “Is this about me?”
They’re not asking, “Is the thumbnail well designed?”
They’re not asking anything because it happens too fast.
You get 0.3 seconds to spark interest before the thumb moves again.
4️⃣ The Myth of the Purple Cow
MrBeast once said, “Be a purple cow” —
The idea’s simple: when you see something you’ve never seen before — like a purple cow — you stop
Purple cow, (an idea in marketing), do something so new/big/strange that people can’t stop wondering about it.
But now, with AI everywhere, the internet is full of cows with every color imaginable,
and unimaginable
When everything looks surprising, does surprise still work?
Here’s a better word for purple cow: Remarkability.
(Where I learned about it here)
The “purple cow” isn’t about being weird — It’s about being worth a remark —
that split second when someone thinks, “Oh — what’s that?”
before they even realize they’ve stopped scrolling.
5️⃣ Remarkability and Clarity
But how do you show something truly remarkable — something people have never seen before — and still make it clear?
That’s where design comes in.
Not to decorate, but to make the idea visible.
Show the main object/idea first, as clear as possible. (You can get people to tell you if it is clear).
Design elements are for brand recognition, not the message.
Design is for your brand. Clarity is for the click.
In this mindset,
if the viewer has to think, they won’t bother.
The thumbnail has 0.3 second to make the viewer understand.
• Make them stop — then make them curious.
6️⃣ How to Use This Page
This page helps you test whether your thumbnail can stop the scroll.
Here’s how:
- Try searching for a topic close to yours.
- Drag in your thumbnail and hit “Mix.” See how it looks in the real mobile feed — one at a time.
- Scroll and ask yourself:
- Can someone instantly understand what this video is about?
- Are the objects recognizable by the target audience?
- Is it still remarkable even sitting among the other thumbnails?
Don’t make viewers think.
Thinking = scrolling away.
“If they need to think, you’ve already lost to the next monkey.”
7️⃣ Remarkability doesn’t come from graphic design
Thumbnails and titles are just the packaging for your video ideas.
The idea is the foundation of it — the core ingredient that gives everything flavor.
You can polish, glow, and animate a weak idea, but it’ll still taste like nothing.
Design can make something look interesting, but only an idea can make it worth talking about.
Remarkability isn’t built in Photoshop. It’s born from a thought so strong it deserves to exist — even without the thumbnail.
You don’t design remarkability — you discover it.
How do you discover remarkable ideas? That’s another story we’ll talk about that soon.
