By Iyabode Atoyebi
In the global design conversation, there’s a tendency to treat digital product design as a universal language; what works in New York should work in Lagos, right? But those of us who have designed for African markets know that’s not just inaccurate, it’s dangerous.
Digital products don’t exist in a vacuum. They are experienced through culture, infrastructure, economic reality, and even emotional memory. And in many African countries, including Nigeria, these contexts are fundamentally different from those in the West. This means that if we want to build solutions that actually work and scale, we must design differently.
- Design for Intermittent Internet, Not Just Mobile Responsiveness
Many African users don’t have consistent internet access. Data is expensive. Network strength is unreliable. And so, while Western products obsess over high-res interfaces and slick transitions, what matters more here is lightweight design, offline functionality, and clear error handling.
A product that breaks silently because someone went offline mid-transaction? That’s not just frustrating, it’s dangerous.
- Trust Isn’t a Given
In many Western products, trust is assumed. Users don’t think twice about putting in their card details. But in African markets, especially in fintech and e-commerce, trust must be designed actively.
This means:
Showing users where their money is at every step
Using human language, not jargon
Building feedback loops into every interaction
Making help easy to access and real
- Visual Literacy and Language Matter More Than We Think
Design in Africa can’t rely solely on Western visual cues. Icon sets, colors, and even input fields don’t always translate. A form designed with left-aligned labels and Western name formats can instantly confuse someone not used to them.
And language? That’s even more powerful. Designing for comprehension is designing for access.
- Digital Skepticism Is Real
We’re designing for populations who have often been scammed, excluded, or ignored by traditional systems. So skepticism of new digital platforms isn’t just rational, it’s smart.
The responsibility, then, is on us as designers to rebuild that trust with transparency, consistency, and empathy. Every button, every message, every flow needs to say: “You’re safe here.”
- Payment Systems Are Local and Fragmented
Western products often assume clean API integrations, seamless credit card use, and user familiarity. In Africa, we deal with agent networks, USSD, mobile money wallets, and a dozen payment layers that don’t always talk to each other.
If your product doesn’t account for that? It breaks.
Designing for Africa isn’t about lowering the bar. It’s about changing the lens. It’s about designing for reality, not fantasy. It’s about asking: Does this work for the woman selling wares in Kaduna? For the student in Ibadan trying to save 500 naira? For the bike rider making payments with USSD because data is off today?
The future of technology on this continent will belong to those who design with context, culture, and courage. And the sooner we embrace that, the better we can serve the people we’re building for