Community-building content design

 

Making Highlight contributions more engaging

Komoot, a route planning and navigation app, thrives on community-driven content—users explore recommended routes and contribute back by adding ratings, photos, and Highlights (noteworthy spots like peaks, parks, or even the best coffee stops). These contributions are essential for improving route recommendations, but the process of adding Highlights felt buried, tedious, and uninspiring.

Our goal was to fix that by creating a centralized, engaging space where users could easily contribute to existing Highlights, add new ones, and see how their contributions inspire others.

A more motivating experience

This project was a perfect blend of on-brand creative writing and precise UX copy, and I collaborated closely with the product designer and product manager to bring it to life. We kicked off with a weeklong design sprint, throwing ideas at the wall before refining them into a single, streamlined contribution hub.

Since I was balancing competing priorities at the time, I leaned on the designer to conduct user research, then applied their findings to shape every piece of copy on the page, ensuring it was clear, engaging, and aligned with user needs.

Users now land on a dedicated page where they can scroll through and add contributions effortlessly.

 
 
 
 

Encouraging, dynamic messages appear as users rate Highlights, upload photos, and share tips.

 
 
 
 

A motivating empty state welcomes new users who haven’t yet had a chance to explore.

 
 
 
 

Fixing the “Yes/No” problem

One of the biggest wins came from reworking the outdated Highlight recommendation format. Previously, users could only answer "Yes" or "No" to “Do you recommend this Highlight?”—a dull, uninspiring prompt that also limited how we presented information across the product.

I mocked up alternatives in Figma and shared them with the designer.

 
 

The team immediately saw the value in a more inviting, flexible approach and implemented the changes.

 
 
 
 

The results

The updated contribution flow is already making an impact:

  • +7.2% increase in average contributions per user

  • +8.1% increase in average Highlights per user

By making the process clearer, more engaging, and rewarding, we empowered users to contribute more—and in turn, improved komoot’s route recommendations for the entire community.