UX Research and Human-Centred Design in Africa

Sector 01 / Education

Learning designed
for African futures

We research how learners, teachers and communities experience education from early childhood through to higher education, and work with partners to design solutions that scale.

Sector 02 / Technology & Digital

Products built on
real insight

We study how African users interact with digital products and surface what global UX frameworks tend to miss. That understanding becomes the foundation for products that actually work here.

Sector 03 / Health

Healthcare that
people trust and use

We research patient journeys, community health behaviours and health system experiences to help partners design services that people can and will use.

Sector 04 / Finance & Fintech

Financial inclusion
by design

We research the behaviours, barriers and financial lives of underserved populations so that the products built for them are genuinely useful, not just technically available.

Sector 05 / NGOs & Social Impact

Programmes built
from the ground up

We work with foundations, NGOs and social enterprises to understand the communities they serve before anything is designed. Good intentions are not enough without good research.

Sector 06 / Government & Public Sector

Public services
people actually want

We help government agencies understand what citizens actually need and design services around that, rather than around what is easiest to build or administer.

01 / 06

About Designing Futures

People closest to the problem are best placed to help solve it.

Designing Futures is a UX research and human-centred design practice working across Africa. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, we work alongside organisations that want to understand their users properly before building anything. We have been doing this work for over 15 years, across more than 15 African countries, in sectors ranging from education and health to finance and government.

Track record

15+Years experience
15+African countries
6Sectors served
25+Years collective expertise

What we do

Our services

We offer UX research and human-centred design across the full project lifecycle, built around the realities of working in Africa.

01

UX Research & User Insights

Qualitative and quantitative research to understand how real users in African contexts think, behave and make decisions. We go where the users are.

Field researchUser interviewsUsability testing

02

Human-Centred Design

We run structured HCD processes that start with people and end with solutions they will actually use. Communities are part of the process, not just the audience for it.

Design thinkingCo-creationPrototyping

03

Strategic Design Research

Landscape analyses, needs assessments and opportunity mapping to help organisations understand what to build and why before committing resources to it.

Needs assessmentOpportunity mapping

04

Service Design

We map the full service experience across every touchpoint and stakeholder. Useful for organisations whose services span multiple channels, teams or countries.

BlueprintingJourney mappingSystems thinking

05

Design Facilitation & Capacity Building

Workshops, design sprints and training that build real HCD capability inside your team. We aim to make ourselves less necessary over time, not more.

SprintsTrainingFacilitation

06

Innovation Strategy

We help organisations identify where genuine innovation is possible and design solutions that can grow. Grounded in context, not borrowed from elsewhere.

InnovationFutures thinkingScaling

Where we work

Sectors & industries

We have built genuine expertise across six sectors over 15 years of working in Africa. Each one has its own context, constraints and users. We know the difference.

01

Education

Learning design, EdTech, curriculum and teacher development

02

Technology & Digital

Mobile products, platforms, digital services and apps

03

Health

Health systems, patient experience and public health programmes

04

Finance & Fintech

Financial inclusion, mobile money and banking products

05

NGOs & Social Impact

International development, foundations and social programmes

06

Government & Public Sector

Public services, policy design and civic technology

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How we work

Our approach

We follow a clear process. It is not rigid, but it is deliberate. Every step exists for a reason.

01

Immerse

We spend time in the field. Interviews, observation and honest conversations with the people the work is actually for.

02

Synthesise

We make sense of what we found. Patterns, tensions, unmet needs and real opportunities that the data points to.

03

Co-create

We design with the people who will use the solution, not just for them. Their input shapes what gets built.

04

Test & Refine

We prototype and test with real users before anything is finalised. Problems caught early cost far less to fix.

05

Scale

We design for longevity. Solutions should work beyond the pilot, transfer across contexts and build local capability.

Trusted by

Our partners

We have worked with global foundations, international NGOs, African startups and government bodies across the continent.

Get in touch

Talk to us

Tell us what you are working on. We will tell you honestly whether we can help and how.

Based in

Nairobi, Kenya

Operating across

15+ African countries

Website

www.designing.africa