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RoleLead Product Designer
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Year2024
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Timeline4 months
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Platform
The Beginning
I still remember my first field day in Lagos. I met market traders, bus drivers and students, people who navigated a city of relentless energy, but who found everyday tasks like paying a bill or reporting a pothole surprisingly difficult.
The brief was simple in words but complex in reality:
build one mobile app that helps people navigate, transact and discover their city.
Framing the Problem
Before diving into design, I needed to understand the lived experiences behind the problem. Lagos isn’t just a city, it’s an ecosystem of chaos and charm. Yet, that very energy comes with challenges.
The three biggest issues stood out immediately:
Traffic Congestion & Navigation Gaps
That's how the idea of MyLagosApp came to life,
one platform where citizens could navigate, transact, and connect with their city.
My Role and
Collaboration
I led the UI/UX design from discovery to delivery over a three-month timeline, working closely with product owners, developers, QA testers, and our scrum master.
We followed a sprint-based approach. I facilitated weekly design reviews, coordinated developer handoffs, and maintained a shared design system built in Figma, later adapted into Flutter components.
The Design Process
I followed the human-centered design process across this five key stages:
Understanding the People Behind the Pixels
I started with research, not numbers, but conversations.
I spent days interviewing residents in markets, offices, and cafés across Lagos Island and the Mainland. I asked them simple questions:
How do you currently access public services?
What frustrates you most about living or moving around Lagos?
Some answers were sobering. Others were eye-opening. Many people simply didn't trust that digital government platforms would work.
Empathy Map Summary
To synthesise user perspectives, I created an empathy map representing the shared mindset of a Lagos resident using MyLagosApp for the first time.
Our research insights revealed
- 78% of respondents found it stressful to locate reliable information online.
- Over half relied on word of mouth or social media for public updates.
- Accessibility was a concern for older users who struggled with small text and poor contrast on mobile screens.
Designing with Empathy and Clarity
Once I had our insights, the challenge became translating them into an experience that felt simple, friendly, and trustworthy.
I started with storyboarding and user flow mapping, visualising how a Lagos resident would move through the app on a busy day.
A typical use case looked like this:
Chioma, a small business owner, wants to renew her business permit, pay a waste bill, and check the fastest route home, all within one app.
This became my design anchor.
Fig: Storyboarding
Design Highlights
Onboarding and Personalisation
I introduced a conversational onboarding flow that helps users select what matters most to them, transportation, business, governance, entertainment, or community services.
Each preference unlocks a tailored experience with relevant updates and shortcuts.
Fig: Onboarding
Fig: Onboarding
Accessibility First
The interface features scalable typography, and a high-contrast theme for visibility in sunlight (a real Lagos challenge).
We wanted to ensure inclusivity, whether someone was using a high-end iPhone or a budget Android device.
Integrated Wallet System
MyLagosApp includes a secure wallet that allows users to make payments for utilities, levies, and services without visiting multiple sites.
Fig: Wallect System
Security was built-in, not added later, encrypted sessions, OTP validation, and biometric options all tested and approved by the QA team.
Explore Lagos
We designed a vibrant exploration hub for tourists and locals alike. Users can find events, markets, and government-approved businesses, supported by geo-location and category filters.
Fig: Explore Lagos
Prototyping and Testing
My design process was iterative, I tested, listened, and refined.
I ran three usability testing rounds with users aged 18 to 55. Each session provided unexpected lessons. For instance:
My research insights revealed
- Users wanted faster ways to complete onboarding.
- Visual cues for payment confirmation increased trust.
- A map-based service directory outperformed text lists by 40% in task completion.
I tracked performance metrics post-launch:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Sessions | 33,746 |
| Unique Users | 22,392 |
| Average Screens per Session | 1.2 |
| Rage Taps | 2.18% (significantly reduced) |
| Dead Taps | Dropped by 50.6% post-iteration |
Collaborative
Delivery
The design handoff was done through an organised Figma-to-Flutter workflow.Developers could inspect components and use tokens directly from the design library, ensuring visual consistency across Android and iOS builds.
Each sprint ended with a joint QA walkthrough, checking not just functionality, but experience fidelity.
As a result, the first public release achieved an 82% session engagement rate within the first month.
The Outcome
But beyond numbers, it was the small stories that mattered most:
- A market woman who paid her waste bill without leaving her stall.
- A commuter who found a better route home during rush hour.
- A tourist who discovered the Nike Art Gallery and shared their experience online through the app.
That was the real success, making the city work a little better for everyone.
Reflections
Looking back, MyLagosApp taught me some of my most important design lessons:
- Design for the environment, not the assumption. Lagos is unpredictable, the network, the heat, the diversity. Every design decision needed to account for that context.
- Inclusive design isn't a checklist, it's a mindset.Accessibility and clarity weren't extras; they were the foundation.
- Government design can be joyful.With the right approach, even formal systems can feel approachable, efficient, and human.
Closing Thought
Designing MyLagosApp reminded me that design isn't just about pixels or patterns, it's about people, patience, and purpose.
For me, this project wasn't simply about creating a product. It was about giving Lagosians, and their city, a clearer, faster, more human way to connect.
