Stream Overlay Design: Where To Start & What To Avoid

How To Choose The Right Overlays For Your Stream

Where to start with Stream Overlays

There are a few things that a new viewer will see upon joining your channel.

You want that first instance of them seeing your stream to be an aesthetically pleasing and informative experience, so they know almost instantly if your content and vibe will be for them. Depending on what you are streaming and the content you create, this will look different from streamer to streamer. The most important thing is to create a lasting first impression that will have a viewer tuning in or dropping a follow so they can come back to see more when you are online.


Success of your streaming channel is hinged upon viewer engagement and interaction, and the appeal of your channel is one of the most important tools you can use to increase this. As a streamer, your stream appeal is based on the content you make and on the use of your interactive features such as chat boxes, alerts, webcam overlays and more – all of which are stream overlays. Stream overlays not only give information on your content and stream, but they also provide information and events. Items such as alerts and reactive overlays give an interactive element to your view to engage with, adding an extra layer of entertainment to your stream content to keep them watching and supporting.


When it comes to stream overlays it is important to recognize them as a tool to increase the viewer rate and viewer engagement levels of your stream.

Decide what content you will be streaming

Before you start looking for stream overlays, you need to be clear with yourself about what content you are going to be streaming. Having your purpose in mind when looking for stream overlays will make choosing them that much easier.

Whether it is gaming, creative, music, just chatting or something more niche; deciding this will guide the stream design you are looking for. Another thing to mention is, consider letting a little of your own personality shine through your choices so that your viewers are introduced to not only your content, but a small piece of you when they first arrive in your channel.


Gaming

There are a few ways to go with Gaming content.


Specific Games: If your channel is going to centre on one specific game, you want your stream overlays to either represent or be on theme with the game you are playing. For example – Valor is a Valorant inspired stream pack, with a thought-out modular design and complimenting colors to work with the game you are playing.


Specific Genre Of Games: If you are playing a mixture of games, but they exist within the same genre – you can look at stream overlay packages that work with the genre. If your gameplay is going to be mostly pixel art or retro based, something like Arcade stream overlays could work for you.


Variety Games: If you play a huge variety of games that transcend genres and themes, this is where it gets a little trickier. A good idea is to pick a theme that has some consistency throughout the games you are playing. If many of them feature the colour yellow or pink, you could try something like Rose Gold stream overlays. Or you can pick something that fits the style of games, if you place a lot of games that are futuristic try the Futuristic themed stream overlays collection. And finally, you could decide to pick a stream overlay design that represents your personality (and does not distract from your gameplay by being overbearing). Good suggestions for this would be Minimalist stream overlays packages for a clean and simple look, or for a little more color you could choose Neon, our lo-fi cozy pack.

Just Chatting

Areas to Focus: When the aim of your stream is to interact with your viewers socially as a "Just Chatting" stream, you want the focus to be on both the chat and on yourself. Choosing a large webcam size to display your face and including a chat box that takes front and centre of the screen will be the focus during your chat streams.

Personality: When your content is focused purely on the social rapport you are building with your viewers, followers and subscribers, you want to show off who you are! By choosing stream overlays that make your personality shine through, it will help the viewers connect with you during chatting streams.

Creative

Non-distracting: When you are making creative content such as art, music or so on - choosing a minimalist or simplistic stream overlays design will be the best choice to not pull focus from your creations. Such examples include Black and White Stream Overlays for a monochrome look. For something with a splash of color, but with the clean layout you are looking for, Shift would be a good choice.

Modular Layout: It's a good idea to separate the areas of your stream with modular windows to accommodate your creative area, your tools, your camera and your chat box.

Goals

Goal Trackers: If your stream content is centering around a specific goal - whether that is followers, subs, donations, or something for an event - then you need to display it. Having this information on screen will present what you are trying to achieve to your viewers, encouraging their participation to help you meet it.

To display your goals, it is easily done with a stream widget or reactive overlay. Using a multiplatform widget means you can centre your goals onto a purpose made Goal Bar Widget or a Hype Train Widget.

Milestone Celebrations: Make sure to show off your wins! Animated Alerts are the best way to display that you have hit a milestone. This interactive feature is something your viewers have to trigger, making sure that they fulfil the actions needed - such as subbing or donating - for you to hit the goal and set off the alert.

What to include when picking a Stream Overlay design

Readability: Your viewers will be making snap decisions on your content as soon as they land in your stream. Making sure that items are easily readable, that they can tell what is happening in your stream, and that any important information about your stream is decipherable. Use clear fonts, clear wording, and clean separated areas that are dedicated to your content, chat and information.

Important Information to Display: You want to make sure that the essential information of your stream is included in your stream overlays.

  • Have a stream title that clearly shows the type of content you are streaming.
  • Include your social media handles and any other links using banners and panels.
  • A timeline of your stream such as past events, upcoming events using Stream Scenes.
  • Alerts that show the latest triggered events
  • Goals, hype trains, widgets and so forth that your viewers can get involved in.
  • Information about your stream, your content, who you are, what to expect from your channel, and when you stream using Twitch Panels.

Consistent Branding: Choose a branding that can transcend across different platforms and channels to create a unique and recognizable brand for your stream.

Clear and Clean: Keep the stream uncluttered with having an organized set up of stream overlays that do not encroach on your content display. Make sure that all stream graphics are correctly sized and installed to a professional manner. We have a setup guide for Elements stream overlays, and a guide on how to make sure your stream overlays are the right size.

Test Everything: Make sure that you have tested everything before you go live. Technical difficulties happen, but try to eliminate the chance of this distracting your viewers on stream with thoroughly testing everything beforehand. Head over to our Resources page for stream guides.

What to avoid when choosing a Stream Overlay design

Ornate Fonts: You want to avoid any fonts that are too decorative or are hard to read. Simplicity and readability are key, there are millions of fonts out there that are both appealing to look at and informative.

Overcrowding: Make sure that the channel is not cluttered. You want to make use of layers, transparency and organized modular designs.

Not Including Mobile Compatibility: When you have checked that your stream works for PC, check that it also works for mobile. Forgetting mobile user experience - around 40% of users watch streamed content from their mobiles - can cost you a lot of viewers.

Distracting Animations: Animations are great and should be used to signify something - an alert, a scene transition and so on. Keep your choices of animations interesting, visually stimulating but not distracting from your content.

TLDR;

When it comes to choosing a stream design, make sure you are thinking about your content, your personality, and what you want viewers to be greeted with when they join your channel! A stream design should compliment your content and engage your viewers.

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GETREKT Labs and GETREKT Elements create custom and pre-made stream overlays for YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Kick, Tiktok and all major streaming platforms, for use with StreamElements, StreamLabs and OBS.

GETREKT Labs features custom stream overlays, animated Twitch overlays, interactive stream assets, 3D world building, Unreal Engine 5 environments, custom widgets, stream overlays for OBS, camera overlays, reactive overlays, emotes, alerts, sound effects (sfx), set-up, coding and more for all items. Set-up includes all platforms and integration with StreamLabs, Stream Elements and OBS.

GETREKT Elements features pre-made stream overlays and assets, including animated Twitch stream overlays, camera overlays, stream layouts, emotes, alerts, sfx, Twitch panels, scene transitions, stingers, OBS overlays and more – all with an easy 1 click set up in StreamLabs and StreamElements with OBS.

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