1.
The Role of Design:
in Driving The Growth
of Tech in Nigeria
Charles Eke | Design Lead, Check DC

2.
The growth of the
Nigerian tech space.
Nigeria is the next big frontier
for tech, with startups improving
access to healthcare, financial
services, education, and energy
at scales unimaginable just ten
years ago.

3.
How exactly?
We can break design in tech into two broad categories
Product
Design
01 Brand
Design
02

4.
Brand Design
❏ Bridging the trust gap
❏ Improving brands cultural relevance
❏ Shaping business strategy
❏ Increasing brand reach

5.
01
02
03
04
Bridging
the
trust
gap
Improving
brands
cultural
relevance
Shaping
business
strategy
Increasing
brand
reach
Effective brand design is helping more brands bridge
the trust gap that is endemic to Nigerian businesses,
by helping to clarify brand messaging, creating
effective marketing collateral and helping users
better identify with brands.
This has led to increased adoption of new technologies
by users and record amounts raised by startups from
both foreign and local investors.
— Brand Design (Cont’d)

6.
01
02
03
04
Bridging
the
trust
gap
Improving
brands
cultural
relevance
Shaping
business
strategy
Increasing
brand
reach
Culturally relevant designs are helping brands make
more connections with their target audiences. Good
design helps people associate a visual identity to an
idea, which in turn translates to relevance and
trustworthiness.
Brands such as Paystack and Piggyvest used design thinking to
make blue their primary color, as research has shown that it
represents trustworthiness and calm - all characteristics that fit
their positioning as fintechs, as it aids in selling the idea that you
can trust them with your money.
— Brand Design (Cont’d)

7.
01
02
03
04
Bridging
the
trust
gap
Improving
brands
cultural
relevance
Shaping
business
strategy
Increasing
brand
reach
Design-first brands can quickly translate their users' needs
into nifty design solutions, improving their user experience
and opening up new lines of revenue. We've seen
founders focus solely on the tech side of their business
and the target revenue without paying much attention to
design, which has resulted in their businesses having a
shorter lifespan.
Design is what makes a product easy to use because designers
frequently put themselves in the shoes of the primary target
audience for any tech product or solution. Having a design that is
as seamless as possible ingrained in a company's strategy leads
to user acquisition, retention, and an increase in the bottom line.
— Brand Design (Cont’d)

8.
01
02
Bridging
the
trust
gap
Improving
brands
cultural
relevance
03
Shaping
business
strategy
04
Increasing
brand
reach
Good design has helped catapult indigenous tech
companies to the global stage. Design is one of the few
things in the world that brings people together. Good
design, like good music, is good design. It is relatable to
everyone and everyone.
More than ever before, the first point of contact for any brand is
online, and the design is the first thing that draws people in in a
world where you only have a few seconds to deliver your elevator
pitch. The new elevator pitch is design!
— Brand Design (Cont’d)

9.
Product Design
❏ Accessibility and User inclusion
❏ Prototyping and Rapid testing
❏ Increasing analytical leadership
❏ Allowing for seamless collaboration

10.
01
02
03
04
Accessibility
and
user
Inclusion
Prototyping
and
rapid
testing
Increasing
Analytical
Leadership
Allowing
For
Seamless
Collaboration
Product design in technology actively facilitates
the use of technology from a narrow niche to a
broader spectrum.
WE have more and more people from previously disenfranchised
market segments using digital products in the last 5 years that we
could not have predicted, and some of this progress can be
attributed to the role that User Interface and User Experience play
in incorporating context, accessibility, and market reach at large.
— Product Design (Cont’d)

11.
01
02
03
04
Prototyping
and
rapid
testing
Allowing
For
Seamless
Collaboration
Imaging a world without design, where you have to
actually build on your ideas to see if they even work in
real life. That can be quite expensive. Modern design
tools like Adobe Photoshop, illustrator, AutoCAD and
more help designers prototype and carry out rapid
tests at a very low cost before going into production.
This has saved tech companies money and enabled
them to do more with less.
Accessibility
and
user
Inclusion
— Product Design (Cont’d)
Increasing
Analytical
Leadership

12.
01
02
03
04
Increasing
Analytical
Leadership
Allowing
For
Seamless
Collaboration
Good design allows brands to embed effective analytical
tools into their product, helping them to understand their
users better and improve performance and customer
satisfaction without needing to carry out any grand,
expensive surveys or ad campaigns.
Accessibility
and
user
Inclusion
— Product Design (Cont’d)
Prototyping
and
rapid
testing

13.
01
02
03
Increasing
Analytical
Leadership
04
Allowing
For
Seamless
Collaboration
Design first brands have the distinct advantage of being
able to utilize everyone working with the brand as
designers of the user's experience - from a product and
market-facing perspective. Also having a design that
anyone can use allows for scalability which helps tech
companies move fast and this fosters growth.
Accessibility
and
user
Inclusion
— Product Design (Cont’d)
Prototyping
and
rapid
testing

14.
CONCLUSION:
Design and
growth in tech.
Africa is the world’s next big tech frontier,
and solution providers, whether they be
fresh startups or the old guard-
manufacturers, banks and even
government, need to adopt design-first
thinking in order to create more solutions,
to more problems, for more people at
scale, all in relatively little time.

15.
A platform that allows brands
access Nigerian brand mockups for
FREE and removing their erstwhile
reliance on the frequently used
foreign mockup images, allowing
them to represent their brand
messaging in authentic Nigerian
contexts.

16.
With over 3,000 downloads from all around Africa in just
one month since launch, it’s safe to say that we’ve
created a solution that many designers wished for. And
we’re just getting started.

17.
In Conclusion
However subliminal, it is very clear that founders and
consumers alike are beginning to understand the part
design plays in enforcing brand loyalty.
In an era of a million (solution) options for each problem,
design can be the difference between making a sale and
not making one

18.
Thank you.
info@check-dc.com
364 Borno Way,
Off Herbert Macaulay Yaba
Lagos, Nigeria
www.check-dc.com
info@check-dc.com