Nombolo

OVERVIEW

Nombolo flips the script on performative social media. It’s an experiential, geo-video app where people share real recommendations—no “pitch deck” energy, just locals posting what they love.

My job: make first touch obvious, the feed feel alive, and the Create Post moment less confusing.

A video-first, location-based social app for local discovery

MY ROLE

UX/UI Designer (Intern)

User-Centered Design, UI & Visual Design, Prototyping, Animation & Interaction

May - July 2025

Nombolo Onboarding screen animations

User sessions showed people didn’t realize a card was a video. I reworked the card with some exploratory designs and feed layouts:

Preserve correct aspect ratios (no more “mystery crop”).
Clear play affordance and tighter hierarchy so your eye lands where it should.
A bit of personality in micro-interactions, without slowing the scroll

My role (small team, fast cycles)

“What is this?”
New users didn’t understand what Nombolo does or why it’s different from other social media apps in market
Video posts felt static
Cropped covers and weak affordances made videos look like images
Create flow ambiguity
“Ask” vs “Post” lived under the same button and looked the same—cognitive load, mis-taps.

ONBOARDING THAT EXPLAINS ITSELF

Illustrations were cute, but people still asked, “So… what is this?” I swapped them for short in-product motion that literally shows the core actions (discover, post, ask). I worked alongside the marketing interns to use appropriate language for the onboarding screens. We collaboratively came up with clean, honest copy

“Join as a user. Grow as a business. One platform for both.”

To keep momentum, I added progress + skip and multi-modal navigation (swipe, arrows, CTA on every screen). It’s quick if you want it, skimmable if you don’t.

Dev handoff: I wrote a motion spec (durations, easing, transition rules, edge cases) so the React Native build matched the prototype. No guesswork.

The problem we saw

What I designed (and why)

CLEAR "ASK" & "POST" FLOW

Nombolo supports two very different intents (Q&A vs sharing). In the original Create menu, they looked identical. I explored dual-path entry with distinct iconography and color tokens, and a separated flow so users commit to the right mode earlier. Fewer second guesses, fewer backtracks.

I joined Nombolo at a relatively early-stage development; a small product team (CEO, two devs, a designer and a couple interns) working on the MVP2 for the mobile application. I owned UX/UI around onboarding and core feed interactions, and wrote motion/behavior specs for React Native. The work was hands-on, opinionated, and practical.