Abiola Oloko works on complex digital products built on emerging technologies — where artificial intelligence and Web3 systems meet users encountering these technologies for the first time. His work is not simply about visual appeal, but about making unfamiliar digital experiences feel understandable, trustworthy, and usable.
Designing for emerging technology products often involves helping users navigate systems they are encountering for the first time. From interacting with decentralised platforms to trusting AI-driven recommendations, these experiences require careful product thinking to ensure clarity, confidence, and usability.
This is the type of design challenge Abiola Oloko has increasingly gravitated towards in his work.
The Lagos-based product designer has developed a growing portfolio focused on designing digital products built on emerging technologies, particularly Web3 platforms and AI-assisted services. Across these projects, his work centres on translating technically sophisticated systems into experiences that feel clear, trustworthy, and usable for everyday users.
His contributions are gradually gaining recognition within Nigeria’s product design community, especially among teams working on early-stage technology products that require strong user experience thinking.
From engineering lecture halls to interaction design
Oloko’s path into product design reflects a blend of technical training and creative exploration. He studied Computer Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, where he developed an understanding of how software systems are structured and how users interact with them. Alongside his studies, he began experimenting with brand design in 2017, driven by an interest in visual communication that extended beyond his engineering curriculum.
“I was studying engineering, but I was also drawn to design,” he explains. “At some point, I started looking for the intersection between both worlds, and that’s when I discovered product design.”
His early exposure to real product challenges came through Pent Space, a platform designed to connect people seeking specialised medical services with professionals who could provide them. Working on the project marked a shift from learning design concepts to applying them in real-world product scenarios.
“I had always been learning and experimenting,” he says. “But that project forced me to move beyond learning and actually design something people could use.”
The experience helped shape his interest in working on digital products where design decisions directly affect how users understand and adopt new technology.
“Working with Abiola brought clarity to how we presented AI-driven matching to users. He focused strongly on trust signals within the interface, which helped us design a more reassuring hiring experience, ” Goodness Olaoluwa, CTO, Ulo Helps.
Building trust in systems people don’t yet understand
One of the products that reflects Oloko’s interest in emerging technology is Audacity, a Web3 platform exploring decentralised models of participation and digital ownership.
Working on the product involved addressing user experience challenges common to blockchain-based platforms, particularly how to make technically complex interactions feel more understandable and trustworthy for first-time users.
Early testing phases saw participation from more than 500 users exploring decentralised participation features, with Oloko contributing to onboarding and interaction design improvements aimed at reducing user confusion.
His design contributions included simplifying onboarding flows, improving clarity around key user actions, and helping translate unfamiliar Web3 concepts into more intuitive product experiences.
The platform has also received ecosystem support through a grant from Arbitrum Foundation’s Crypto Cities initiative, highlighting growing interest in decentralised participation models.
“Web3 products are still in an experimental phase,” Oloko says. “Designers in that space are not just designing interfaces. They are helping shape how people interact with entirely new technological systems.”
The experience further shaped his interest in working on digital products where thoughtful design plays a central role in helping users adopt new technologies with confidence.
“Abiola helped us rethink how new users approached key product decisions. His focus on reducing confusion during onboarding improved early engagement,” Oluwole Kayode, CEO Audacity.
Applying design thinking to everyday stakes
Not all of Oloko’s work has focused on blockchain-driven products. He has also contributed to platforms addressing everyday challenges faced by users. One example is ULO Helps, an AI-assisted platform designed to simplify how employers connect with domestic workers.
His design contributions focused on improving clarity and trust within the matching experience, particularly for users relying on algorithmic recommendations to make important hiring decisions. This included refining how candidate information was presented, streamlining key user flows, and helping shape a more reassuring overall product experience.
During its initial rollout, the platform saw early adoption among households in Lagos, attracting more than 200 employer registrations, with Oloko contributing to user experience improvements aimed at making the hiring process easier to understand and navigate.
He also contributed as part of a design team on Vespoor, a digital platform that enables individuals to pool resources and participate in shared real estate ownership. His involvement focused on user experience improvements aimed at helping first-time users better understand investment processes and navigate the platform with greater confidence.
As part of the design team, he contributed to user experience refinements during early testing involving 100 prospective investors, helping improve clarity around key investment actions.
Across these projects, Oloko has developed an interest in working on products where clarity, trust, and usability play a critical role in user adoption.
Community leadership: building the field, not just a career
Product design education in Nigeria remains concentrated in a limited number of formal programmes, often located in major urban centres and less accessible to students studying technical disciplines such as engineering or the sciences. As demand for product designers continues to grow within the country’s startup ecosystem, this gap has become increasingly visible.
Oloko has contributed to addressing this challenge through his involvement with Friends of Figma Akure, a professional community of designers and digital creators that he has helped organise and host. Over the past two years, the community has held multiple knowledge-sharing events focused on design systems and modern product practices, creating opportunities for over 150 practising designers to engage directly with students and early-career professionals.
He also led a partnership initiative between the Friends of Figma community and the Federal University of Technology, Akure’s career services unit. The collaboration introduced product design as a viable career path to students and resulted in more than 50 students joining the community, helping expand access to mentorship and industry exposure.
The limits of a frontier practice
Working on emerging technology products in Nigeria often involves navigating practical constraints that designers in more established markets may not face. These can include limited access to large-scale user research resources, evolving product-market fit, and users interacting with digital platforms under varying levels of connectivity and device access.
Oloko acknowledges these challenges as part of the learning curve that comes with designing in rapidly developing technology ecosystems. “Emerging technologies create entirely new design challenges,” he says. “You’re not just refining existing patterns — you’re often helping define them.”
For him, this environment presents an opportunity to work on problems that are still being shaped, where thoughtful product design can play an important role in helping new technologies become more usable and accessible to everyday users.
What his work points toward
Africa’s digital economy continues to expand, creating new opportunities for product designers working across sectors such as fintech, health technology, and emerging decentralised platforms. As competition increases and user expectations evolve, the role of design in shaping product adoption is becoming more visible.
Designers working within this environment are increasingly contributing to solutions that address both local and globally relevant challenges. Through his work on emerging technology products and his involvement in growing the design community, Abiola Oloko represents a new generation of practitioners building experience at the intersection of technical complexity and user-centred thinking.
While operating within the realities of a rapidly developing ecosystem, he continues to focus on refining his approach to designing products that help users interact more confidently with new technologies a direction that is likely to shape the next phase of his professional growth.
Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha
Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers.
She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay.
She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos.
As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender.
She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies.
Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the
prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the ‘Aviation Writer of the Year’ Category.
She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category.
She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations.
Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.
