I didn’t arrive at product design through the typical path of bootcamps, agency jobs, or creative internships. My journey started in Educational Technology at the University of Ilorin, where I spent four years studying how people learn, how they process information, and why some ideas stick while others fall apart.
At the time, I didn’t realise how much those theories would influence the way I design today. But looking back, everything I do as a product designer is rooted in the same principles I learned in those lecture rooms — comprehension, clarity, structure, and empathy for how people think.
Designing Like an Educator
In education, learning is framed around three core domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Without forcing the comparison, I eventually realised these same domains exist inside every digital product.
1. Cognitive: Helping users understand what’s happening
In school, the cognitive domain focuses on comprehension and problem-solving. In product design, it’s the foundation for every interface.
Before I design a flow, I think the way an educator would: What does the user already know? What mental shortcuts will they bring? What might confuse them?
I spend a lot of time observing behaviour, mapping prior knowledge, and simplifying complexity. Great teachers use visual structure to make difficult topics digestible. I use hierarchy, patterns, and language to help users understand a product without feeling overwhelmed. The goal isn’t aesthetics. The goal is comprehension.
2. Affective: Designing for emotion, not just function
The affective domain deals with motivation, attitude and emotion, something I pay close attention to in fintech especially. Users don’t engage with products purely on logic. They feel things — uncertainty, frustration, confidence, relief.
When I design, I’m constantly thinking about how the experience makes people feel. Does this flow calm them or stress them? Does the product reduce anxiety or create more? Does the user feel in control or lost?
Trust is an emotional outcome. Good UX has to earn it.
3. Psychomotor: Respecting how people physically interact with technology
The psychomotor domain relates to physical coordination. In product design, it shows up in the small decisions that determine usability:
- touch targets
- thumb zones
- gesture tolerance
- micro-interactions
- layout ergonomics
These decisions may look small on a screen, but they determine whether an experience feels natural or forced. It’s the same principle teachers apply when they design learning environments that support physical engagement.
Why This Matters Even More in the Age of AI
We are in a period where AI adoption is accelerating faster than user understanding. People are interacting with systems they don’t fully trust, don’t fully grasp, and can’t fully predict.
I’ve learned that most AI products fail not because the technology is weak, but because the user cannot mentally adopt the system. They don’t understand what the model is doing, why it made a decision or what will happen next. This is not just a technical problem. This is a learning problem.
Designers need to create clear explanations, transparent pathways, predictable interactions, and emotional reassurance
This is where my Educational Technology background becomes extremely relevant. AI requires new learning models — new ways of helping users build confidence with unfamiliar systems. My job as a designer is not just to make AI usable, but to make it understandable.
Beyond the Interface: Why Mentorship Matters to Me
My career has always been shaped by community. I learned to design the scrappy way — watching people work, asking questions, experimenting on an old laptop that barely survived the process.
Because of that beginning, I feel a responsibility to make the path easier for others. I’ve mentored hundreds of designers through workshops, one-on-one sessions, and open resources. I’ve created templates, design tools, and interaction libraries that are used globally — not as side projects, but as part of my belief that design only grows when knowledge is shared.
Mentorship isn’t something I do for recognition. It’s something I do because someone needed to do it for me.
A Theory That Became a Career
People often think UX design is about tools like Figma, prototypes, and component libraries. Those are useful, but they’re not what make someone a strong designer. My strength comes from understanding how humans learn, behave, and adapt. That philosophy is the backbone of every product I touch — from fintech tools to AI systems to everyday consumer experiences.
Educational Technology didn’t just prepare me for design. It gave me a framework for building products that:
- teach
- guide
- Reassure
- adapt
- and respect the user’s cognitive limits
When you blend learning psychology with product design, you don’t just create better interfaces; you create experiences people trust, understand, and return to.
