Nigeria’s education technology sector is failing to meet the needs of its core users because many products are built on assumptions rather than real-world insight, according to Lagos-based product designer Cindy Shonna.

Shonna said a major weakness in the country’s EdTech ecosystem is the tendency for developers to design solutions for “imagined users” rather than the teachers, parents and school administrators who interact with these platforms daily.

“The biggest gap is designing for the actual user, not the imagined user,” she said in an interview with The PUNCH. “A lot of Nigerian EdTech products are designed by people who are deeply tech-savvy for a user who looks like them. The actual user is a teacher in a public school or a parent checking results on a basic phone.”

Her comments highlight a broader challenge facing digital education platforms in Africa, where uneven internet access, low-end devices and varying levels of digital literacy shape how technology is adopted.

Shonna’s own path into product design was unconventional. She studied biochemistry at Obafemi Awolowo University before pivoting into technology through an internship in web development. It was during a subsequent front-end development role that she discovered user interface and user experience design, a field she said aligned with both her creative instincts and analytical thinking.

Her focus on education technology developed after joining Edves in 2021, where she worked on tools used by schools to manage operations, track student performance and support teaching.

“You cannot work on something that touches education and not feel the weight of it,” she said. “Every design decision had a real human on the other end, a school accountant, a parent or a student preparing for exams.”

One of her most defining projects began as a request to design a fee defaulter tracker for schools. However, after conducting field visits and interviews with school staff, she found that the problem was far more complex.

“Most schools were managing finances across Excel sheets, notebooks and disconnected platforms. There was no single source of truth,” she said. “Students who had paid were being chased, and audits were difficult.”

Rather than build a narrow tool, she designed a full accounting system covering income, expenses, payroll and reporting, while allowing schools to upload existing data to ease the transition, a move aimed at addressing what she described as widespread fear of adopting new technology.

“That project shaped my entire approach,” she said. “Always go to the user first. The problem you are asked to solve is rarely the actual problem.”

Shonna also worked on integrating artificial intelligence features into education platforms, focusing on practical use cases such as lesson planning, exam question generation and parent engagement.

She said the challenge was not technological but cultural, noting that many users were initially sceptical of AI.

“My solution was to never force AI on anyone,” she said. “I designed systems where the manual option exists alongside AI, so users can choose. Over time, trust builds naturally.”

Her work reflects a broader view that design plays a critical role in determining whether digital tools succeed in African classrooms.

“In African education, design is not decoration; it is access,” she said. “If a platform is confusing, users do not just struggle, they abandon it.”

According to Shonna, simplicity, offline functionality and compatibility with low-cost devices are essential design considerations in markets like Nigeria, where infrastructure constraints remain significant.

She also pointed to a lack of continuous improvement in many local EdTech products, with companies often failing to iterate after launch.

“Real product design is an ongoing conversation with users,” she said. “The best outcomes come from feedback, visiting schools, listening to complaints and observing how people actually use the product.”

Beyond private platforms, Shonna contributed to the development of government education portals in Enugu and Cross River states, digitising processes such as school registration, student enrolment and approval workflows that were previously paper-based.

She said the continued use of these platforms by civil servants and school administrators is a sign that user-centred design can improve adoption, even in public sector systems often criticised for low utilisation.

Looking ahead, Shonna argued that artificial intelligence could reshape education delivery across Africa, not by replacing teachers but by expanding their capabilities.

“The most meaningful application of AI is giving teachers and parents tools they never had before,” she said, citing examples such as automated lesson notes and personalised learning guidance for students.

For Nigeria’s EdTech sector to realise its potential, however, she insists the starting point must remain the same: a deeper understanding of the people it is meant to serve.

“You cannot design for impact if you do not understand the user,” she said.