YaMabrook: a mobile app for wish lists and social gifting
I was the sole Content Designer for the YaMabrook app. I was involved from ideation to product launch.
This case study explores how I developed the brand voice and applied that voice across contexts.
My role: Content Designer
The product
YaMabrook — a mobile app for wish lists and social gifting. Published in Sept., 2022.
Who I collaborated with
Product Manager
Product Owner
UI/UX Designer
Engineers
My work
Market research
User personas
Voice and tone guide
UX copy for UI screens
App store content
Tools
Adobe XD
Google Docs
Slack
The challenge
The YaMabrook team needed brand voice guidelines and UX writing for their new app. The app would be in English for a non-native English-speaking user base, so the content needed to be simple, clear, and easy to understand. Also, some elements of the app were culturally specific. Finally, the team was working with a tight release deadline and needed branded website content.
STAGE 1 — Information gathering
Since the brand was new, we lacked user data; I needed more information about the prospective user base. How I addressed this:
Met with the Product Manager and Product Owner to understand business goals and context
Interviewed several target users about their daily life and interests
Researched market competitors
Documented my findings in Google Docs, and shared them with several stakeholders
Created user personas
Challenges: understanding users from a different culture than my own. Bridging language differences.
My approach
The project was a big one, so I broke it down into the following stages:
Information gathering: research and documentation about the target users
Creation of voice and tone guidelines
Drafts 1 and 2 of UI screens
Copywriting for app stores and website
STAGE 2 — Voice and tone guide
Before writing for the app, I needed to create a voice and tone guide. This would establish a single source of truth for the product copy. I envisioned this as a living document that would be continuously updated as the product matured.
Within the voice and tone guide, I built a table of commonly used terms. I also documented some topics around cultural sensitivity.
Challenges: determining what to include and what to leave out of the guide. Documenting copy choices as they evolved.
STAGE 3 — UX copy for UI screens
Now for the fun part! Working in collaboration with the UI/UX designer, I wrote original UX copy for all of the product screens. I did a second round of writing and editing after receiving feedback from users during early beta testing. During this phase, I also worked one-on-one with the lead engineer to write and apply product notifications, empty states, and error messages.
Challenges: working across time zones and communicating UX improvements with non-native English speakers.
STAGE 4 — App store, website
As we approached release day, my tasks included UX writing for the following:
Content for the app store product page, including screenshots, title, description, and keywords.
Website copy and contributions to the privacy policy and terms and conditions
Challenge: working on a tight timeline
RESULTS
My work on this project contributed to many positive outcomes, including the following:
A successful product launch
Consistent voice and tone across all screens and experiences
Constructive feedback from early adopters
A community of active users
Resources the team can use to guide content writers
