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I recently had the pleasure of enhancing the user experience of the Bongalo mobile app by refining the design and language used. For context, Bongalo is a travel accommodation booking app (similar to Airbnb) created for the African market.

Join me as I delve into my journey of creating a more delightful and intuitive user experience for African travelers.

The Challenge

A lack of clear guidelines for the UX writers to follow when crafting messages for the app led to some mismatch and ambiguity in the app’s content. Some significant issues that prompted the redesign include:

• User engagement wasn’t optimal — users were getting stuck in the booking/listing process.
• The voice was inconsistent across screens, thereby leading to an incohesive experience.
• Users were contacting support for answers that should be readily available on the interface.

The Goal

To make it easier for users to navigate the African travel accommodation market through the app by using clear and consistent language in the interface.

My Role

Content strategist and designer responsible for creating user-centered content across the app. Some of the things I did include:

• Conducting user research
• Creating personas and user scenarios
• Crafting a content style guide that consists of the brand voice chart and tone map
• Content strategy
• Information Architecture
• Rewriting microcopy and UI text
• Testing and refining copy

My Process

Understanding the Users

My aim was not just to write fancy words but to use words to help users achieve their goals on the app. So my first point of call was getting to know these users:

• Who am I creating the content for?
• What are their goals?
• What are their frustrations?
• How can this product help them achieve these goals and reduce their frustrations?

To answer these questions, I did the following:

• Read emails and feedback from users.
• Spoke to the marketing team to get more information on the target users.
• Interviewed and observed people who use the app.

Using the information I got, I created two personas — one representing those booking accommodations (guests) and the other representing those listing accommodations (hosts).

A user persona representing the typical Bongalo guest.

A user persona representing the typical Bongalo host.

Sketching User Scenarios

After learning about the users, the next step was visualizing their goals and tasks.

I drafted scenarios that depict typical interactions that users like Yvonne and Samuel have when booking or listing accommodations in physical situations. (These conversations will be used as a guide when choosing words to use on the interface).

A user scenario (guest) inspired by the actual words the app’s customers use

Creating the Brand Voice Chart and Tone Map

In this phase, I had discussions with the organization heads and studied the product’s brand guidelines, mission, and vision. Through this, I identified three core goals of the brand content which are to empower, inspire, and guide.

These goals informed the brand voice chart and tone map.

Brand voice chart with the 3 main brand principles

Matching various message patterns to their corresponding tones on the tone map

Tailoring the Content to the Target Audience

As the app was specifically designed for the African market where people are mainly non-native English speakers, I had to consider cultural and linguistic factors. This meant making certain considerations while crafting the copy to eliminate (or at least minimize) any potential miscommunication.

Some of the rules I had to adhere to are as follows:

• Always write in plain English.
• Always use words that translate directly.
• Minimize the use of phrasal verbs (only use them when the meaning is the same as the literal meaning of the individual verbs).
• Avoid the use of abbreviations.

Aligning Brand Content Style with User Needs

In this phase, I used the brand voice chart, tone map, and personas’ goals to make changes to the existing UI text. I also reorganized the information hierarchy to ensure a seamless user experience.

Below are some of the redesigns for various message patterns:

Onboarding

The previous onboarding screens

The new onboarding screens let the users know the main benefits of using the app

Labels

Using the scenarios I sketched earlier, I labeled the text fields on the home screen to align with typical user conversations during accommodation booking.

Labels

Confirmations

Confirmation screen for a user trying to delete their account

Empty States

Before and after screens of an empty state indicating that the user doesn’t have a booking

Errors

Before and after screens of inline error messages

Task Completion

Before and after screens of an account creation success message

Outcome

After implementing the home screen redesign, A/B testing showed a 20% decrease in the average time spent by users in the booking process.

Although some of the new content is yet to be implemented, a heuristics evaluation carried out on the content based on Neilsen Norman’s criteria for usability, indicates improvement in the app’s usability.