User insight gaps limit EdTech expansion

Nigeria’s education technology sector is struggling to scale, as many companies continue to build products based on assumptions rather than the needs of teachers, parents, and school administrators.

According to Lagos-based product designer Cindy Shontan, a persistent weakness in the market is that platforms are often designed for “imagined users”, typically tech-savvy developers rather than the end users who operate in classrooms and administrative offices with limited devices, connectivity constraints, and varying levels of digital literacy.

“The biggest gap is designing for the actual user, not the imagined user,” she said in an interview with The PidomNigeria. “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 reflect a wider structural challenge across Africa’s digital education push, where uneven internet access, affordability constraints, and low digital literacy continue to shape adoption patterns even as investment in EdTech grows.

Shontan’s path into product design underscores the disconnect she describes. After studying biochemistry at Obafemi Awolowo University, she transitioned into technology through web development before specialising in user interface and experience design. She later worked at Edves, where she contributed to software used by schools for administration and student performance tracking.

One early assignment, initially framed as a fee defaulter tracking tool, exposed deeper operational inefficiencies within schools. Field research revealed that many institutions relied on fragmented systems, including spreadsheets, notebooks, and standalone applications, resulting in inconsistent records and weak financial oversight.

“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.”

Instead of building a narrowly defined tool, she developed a broader accounting system covering income, payroll, and reporting, alongside features that allowed schools to gradually migrate existing data, a design choice aimed at reducing resistance to change.

The experience reshaped her approach to product development, reinforcing the need for sustained engagement with users. “The problem you are asked to solve is rarely the actual problem,” she said, highlighting the importance of field research, interviews, and continuous feedback.

The same user-centred approach has informed her work on integrating artificial intelligence into education platforms, where tools can support lesson planning, exam generation, and communication with parents. However, she said adoption remains cautious.

AI features, she noted, were deliberately introduced as optional rather than mandatory. “I designed systems where the manual option exists alongside AI, so users can choose. Over time, trust builds naturally.”

These design decisions are critical in markets like Nigeria, where poor usability can quickly lead to abandonment. Shontan argues that simplicity, offline functionality, and compatibility with low-end devices are essential requirements rather than optional features.

“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.”

Beyond private sector platforms, she has contributed to digitisation projects in Enugu and Cross River states, supporting the transition from paper-based processes to digital systems for school registration and enrolment. Continued use of these platforms, she said, suggests adoption improves when products reflect real administrative workflows.

Despite growing interest in EdTech, she warned that many companies fail to iterate after launch, limiting long-term impact.

“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.”

As Nigeria seeks to expand digital learning infrastructure, closing the user insight gap may prove central to improving both adoption and impact.

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