PROJECT OVERVIEW
Solve-It Mobile App
Solve-It is a Nigerian-born EdTech super-app built to simplify and elevate student life. On one platform, students can buy and sell items through a safe marketplace, order trusted domestic services, stay updated on the latest news on campus, and connect instantly with classmates in dedicated forums.
By combining commerce, services, and community under one trust-first ecosystem, Solve-It doesn’t just solve daily campus needs; it empowers students to earn, collaborate, and thrive.
My Role
- End-to-End Product Designer
- Mobile Application
Tools I used
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Context & Challenge
Nigeria’s university students face daily challenges outside the lecture hall:
- Fragmented channels for buying and selling are often unsafe and unverified
- No reliable peer-to-peer service platform for domestic help like laundry, repairs, and maintenance.
- Isolated communication: many students struggle to connect with peers in their same course or level without relying on scattered WhatsApp groups.
SOLUTIONS
The Opportunity
The solution to the above problem was to create an all-in-one platform that makes student life safer, easier, and more connected, while opening income opportunities for students themselves
PRODUCT GOALS
Strategic Product Goals
Instead of focusing only on “features,” the Solve-It vision was anchored on 3 core business and user goals:
- Trust & Safety
Make buying, selling, and service hiring risk-free using an escrow-like payment system and verified onboarding.
- Hyper-Relevant Communities
Forums tailored to school, course, and level, creating high engagement from day one.
- Empowerment Economy
Let students be vendors and service providers, turning users into value creators.
MY ROLE
My Role & Contribution
I wore many hats for this product. I didn’t just create pretty screens, I managed the end-to-end product from product strategy to the final compositions
- Product Strategy & Experience Mapping
Defining how features connect to solve the full student experience problem.
- UX Architecture
Creating flows for 4 different user personas such as, Student Buyer, Student Vendor, Non Academy Staff, and Admin.
- UI Design & Prototyping
Crafting modern, accessible interfaces optimized for low-data consumption (critical for Nigerian campuses).
- Vendor/Admin Dashboards:
Designing data visibility tools for transparency and easy management.
- Micro-Interaction Design
Ensuring every click gives instant, intuitive feedback to build trust.
- User testing
User testing using UT and AB testing, so that the App can be well-received.
THE CHALLENGES
The Design Challenge (what made this different)
This wasn’t a “design the screens” job, it was a multi-sided ecosystem with unique constraints
- Multiple onboarding flows (Student - Lecturer - School Staff - Others)
- Escrow-inspired trust model for payments without banking friction.
- Device & network limitations: Needed to be lightweight, offline-tolerant, and data-efficient.
- Forum segmentation logic: Auto-placing students in the right forum instantly on signup.
DESIGN PROCESS
Design Process — Beyond the Linear Model
Rather than following the textbook “Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test” pattern, the approach was challenge-led design:
- Immersion in the student ecosystem
I joined WhatsApp and Telegram student groups, listened to frustrations, and tracked buying/selling patterns.
Insight: Trust was the #1 barrier. Students feared being scammed more than high prices.
- Mapping the transactional trust journey
Instead of designing from “homepage → checkout,” I designed from “awareness of need → confirmation of safe delivery”.
- Parallel problem-solving
Marketplace, services, and forums were designed in parallel to ensure feature parity and a consistent interaction model
- Low-fi validation with real students
Instead of lab testing, I tested clickable wireframes with students in cafeterias — capturing natural, real-life feedback.
DESIGN SOLUTIONS
The Solutions
Marketplace
- Dual-mode accounts: buyer or vendor (switchable anytime).
- Escrow-style payment release after delivery confirmation.
- Mobile-first catalog listing for easy product uploads.
Forums
- Auto-enrolled users into hyper-relevant groups based on course and level.
- Moderation tools for self-policing communities.
Services
- Service providers get portfolio-style profiles.
- Students can order, track, and rate services.
IMPACT
Design Impacts & Results
Even before full-scale rollout, early closed beta (300+ students from 2 universities) achieved:
- 73% adoption rate within the first week of sign-ups.
- Zero reported scams due to escrow release model.
- 2.5x more engagement in auto-enrolled forums compared to open groups.
- 15% of users became vendors/service providers in the first month.
WHAT I LEARNED
Key Learnings
Even before full-scale rollout, early closed beta (300+ students from 2 universities) achieved:
- Trust isn’t a “feature” — it’s a product outcome built from design decisions at every layer.
- Student marketplaces thrive when buying and selling are equally easy — vendor onboarding needs to be frictionless.
- Auto-matching in forums removes 80% of the onboarding friction and boosts retention.
CONCLUSION
Why This Project Stands Out
Most “student apps” are fragmented: chat apps, marketplaces, and service apps live in silos.
Solve-It integrated them under one trust-first ecosystem, creating a sticky, scalable model for student economies in Nigeria.
This was not just design — it was building a platform that could become the campus operating system.
