Design Gist

Elsy and Enny explore African AI with a focus on language. They talk through how design history, accessibility, and inclusivity connect to today’s AI tools and the cultural blind spots they can inherit. Moving from a playful gist about Lagos culture and games into a serious conversation about language representation, stereotypes in image generation, and the need for African-built tools that truly understand African users. They also share examples of African AI initiatives and discuss practical use cases in schools, salons, markets, and governance.

Timestamps

(00:00) - Opening banter and the Lagos drama joke
(05:58) - Gist of the week: Lagos Run, Danfo culture, and the game’s appeal
(15:15) - Why street typography matters in the visual culture conversation
(21:10) - Lagos Life, simulation games, and African digital worlds
(30:28) - Why inclusivity matters in design and AI
(34:30) - From post-war accessibility to universal design
(39:26) - Africa as AI user, not AI shipper
(42:09) - Why imported training data creates cultural gaps
(44:34) - Image-generation bias: doctors, children, and African stereotypes
(51:29) - Prompt experiments and how models reproduce race and region bias
(56:28) - Why the bias problem is bigger than one model
(63:41) - Infrastructure, compute, and data-center limitations
(70:33) - Real AI use cases: translation, market communication, and the NYSC
(77:03) - Hair salon AI and why language plus accent can improve trust
(83:25) - Schools, cultural proverbs, and the limits of current AI
(92:92) - Politics, Yoruba, and the debate over language and governance (Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour)
(103:31) - Examples of African AI initiatives and language tools
(111:13) - Design thumbs-down: Gmail drafts and Figma pricing confusion

In this episode

What does design contribute to a business beyond making a product look good?

In this episode of Design Gist, we sit down with Nuel Adeleke, a seasoned Product designer based in Lagos known digitally as nuelverse. We unpack the relationship between design, product, and business and why designers must think beyond the interface they're creating.

We explore how good design can influence trust, user behaviour, product adoption, and ultimately business performance, with examples from Nigerian fintech and transportation apps.

We also get into the less-discussed side of being a designer: how to demonstrate the business impact of your work, communicate that impact to stakeholders, work effectively with product teams, and gain greater influence within an organisation.

And as AI continues to change how digital products are designed and built, we discuss what this means for designers, their careers, and the future of design work.

Resources mentioned

⁠Optimizing checkout for profitability: amazon’s one-click ordering success story ⁠- Nuelverse

Key Takeaway

Design doesn't create business value simply because something looks good. The real value comes from understanding people, solving the right problems, making better products, and being able to connect those decisions to the outcomes a business cares about.

For designers, that means learning to not only do the work, but also understand, measure and communicate why the work matters.

In this episode

What does design contribute to a business beyond making a product look good?

In this episode of Design Gist, we sit down with Nuel Adeleke, a seasoned Product designer based in Lagos known digitally as nuelverse. We unpack the relationship between design, product, and business and why designers must think beyond the interface they're creating.

We explore how good design can influence trust, user behaviour, product adoption, and ultimately business performance, with examples from Nigerian fintech and transportation apps.

We also get into the less-discussed side of being a designer: how to demonstrate the business impact of your work, communicate that impact to stakeholders, work effectively with product teams, and gain greater influence within an organisation.

And as AI continues to change how digital products are designed and built, we discuss what this means for designers, their careers, and the future of design work.

Resources mentioned

Optimizing checkout for profitability: amazon’s one-click ordering success story - Nuelverse

Key Takeaway

Design doesn't create business value simply because something looks good. The real value comes from understanding people, solving the right problems, making better products, and being able to connect those decisions to the outcomes a business cares about.

For designers, that means learning to not only do the work, but also understand, measure and communicate why the work matters.

In this episode, Enny and Elsy talk about what it’s like to conduct user research for a Nigerian exam prep platform, Quizant. They share insights from interviews with students preparing for JAMB and discuss how things like internet access, data costs, and cultural differences can shape the way people use a product.

They also explore what user-centred design looks like in a Nigerian context and some of the challenges that come with designing for diverse users.

Into the conversation we discuss milk, packaging, misinformation, and consumer perception — looking at how branding, packaging, mental models, and quality can influence the products we trust and choose.

Chapters

(00:00) Space Exploration and Social Media Buzz

(02:55) Introduction to the Design Gist Podcast

(05:57) User Research for JAMB Candidates

(08:50) Design Thumbs Up: Innovative Apps

(12:05) Challenges in User Research Interviews

(15:14) Insights from User Research Experience

(17:57) Navigating Internet Challenges in Nigeria

(20:58) Reflections on Research Methodology

(29:57) Navigating Remote Interviews

(33:04) Challenges in Education and Research

(36:01) The Flaws in the Exam System

(41:00) Innovative Learning Tools

(45:04) Reflections on the Interview Process

(50:00) Cultural Perspectives on Education

(55:07) The Role of Design in Information Accessibility

(56:04) Understanding Food Labeling and Consumer Awareness

(59:02) Cultural Perceptions of Food and Health

(01:01:06) The Impact of Misinformation on Public Health

(01:07:30) Regulatory Challenges in Food Safety

(01:12:03) The Influence of Wealth on Health Standards

(01:17:20) The Importance of Consumer Education

AI is changing the creative industry, but what happens when it starts recreating the work of designers?

In this episode, we explore where the line should be drawn when using AI, how designers can navigate this rapidly changing landscape, and what all of this means for the future of creativity and the society.

We also discussed the ethics surrounding its use, and the tension between objective standards and subjective perspectives.

🎧 Listen in and join the gist.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

00:04 AI Is changing more than just design

00:07 Recap of the last episode

00:22 The need for permission to recreate a design with ai

00:52 Is virality changing how we create?

01:24 What happens to creative jobs as AI gets better?

02:04 Where should designers draw the line with AI?

02:23 What’s new?

02:52 Has AI changed what we consider “good” design?

03:56 Who should regulate AI in the creative industry?

05:01 Why AI-generated content hits differently

05:19 The ethical problems AI creatives can’t ignore

05:57 Can creativity stay authentic in the age of AI?

07:03 Permission and consent in AI use

07:59 Can humans & AI actually create together?

08:17 Who decides what good design looks like?

08:56 Should we be more open to different views on AI?

12:08 Is creative quality objective or subjective?

15:46 Where is AI taking creativity?

20:01 How AI could change culture & society

24:33 So how do we navigate the AI era?

“Don’t feed my work to AI.”

That was the response from Nigerian motion designer Irapada Abraham after an AI creator recreated his work and posted it online.

But where exactly is the line between inspiration and imitation? Does credit make a difference? Should you ask permission before using someone's work as an AI reference? And if a human can study and recreate another designer's work, why should AI be any different?

In this episode, Irapada joins us to unpack the controversy and share his perspective on AI, creativity, and what it means to be a motion designer in 2026.

We also talk about the future of motion design, whether AI will take creative jobs, how designers can adapt, and what it's really like building a creative career in Nigeria.

Watch/listen and tell us: Where do you draw the line?

Connect with Irapada:

IG page: https://www.instagram.com/irapss.ae?igsi=azcwNWw5ZjFiaXh6&utm_source=qr

Twitter page: https://x.com/irapss_ae?s=11

His portfolio: http://irapsinmotion.cv

His product thumbs up as promised: https://x.com/motionimo/status/2092099678032568673/video/1

In this episode we explore the other side of design, the parts that don't get talked about nearly enough. We discuss overlooked areas like wayfinding, technical illustration, agricultural branding, pharmaceutical packaging and service design. We ask why design in Nigeria and across Africa is so often reduced to logos, branding and digital interfaces, when design can also shape systems, processes, environments and entire experiences. We also explore the service design gap, and how designers can evolve as AI changes the industry, and whether the answer lies in finding new niches. And, of course, we end up asking the bigger question: what actually makes someone a designer?

Chapters

(00:00) Intro

(00:14) Product Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down

(07:56) The Design Niches We Don’t Talk About

(10:08) What Does It Mean to Be a Designer?

(14:00) Wayfinding & Designing Experiences

(19:58) Why Are These Design Areas So Overlooked?

(27:20) The Service Design Gap in Nigeria

(35:04) What Exactly Is Service Design?

(37:23) Copying vs. Adapting Solutions for Africa

(45:41) Finding Your Niche in an Oversaturated Industry

(50:47) How Do Designers Evolve With the Times?

(54:32) Specialization vs. Being a Multidisciplinary Designer

(58:31) Again what Makes Someone a Designer?

(1:04:58) What Is Design?

(1:08:41) Finding the Unsaturated Parts of Design

(1:10:59) Social Media Gist: The GoLemon Story

(1:14:04) Outro

In this episode, we talk about analysis paralysis. We also got into the discourse around Nomba (formerly Kudi) going viral for allegedly vibe-coding their website redesign.

Product 👍: Tailwind colors, Google Gemini summarising long email threads

Product 👎: iOS Photos App collections

Concepts discussed:

• Analysis paralysis in e-commerce (Amazon, Temu, Shein)
• Stakeholder pressure as a driver of overloaded UIs
• Information hierarchy and prioritising primary user tasks
• AI-assisted personalisation as a possible (imperfect) solution
• The "casino effect" in e-commerce design
• Vibe coding and what AI-generated design actually looks like in the wild
• Designers communicating ROI to non-designer stakeholders
• BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) — yes, it's relevant, please stay with us

Key takeaway for designers:Know your user's primary task. Build the hierarchy around that task.

Follow us:

• Instagram: @designgistpod

We had big plans to break down analysis paralysis from the Laws of UX deck, but Enny's mic had other ideas. What you're getting instead: our intro (which slaps), and a social media listening session where we gist about Google Stitch's new features, Anthropic's survey about what people actually want from AI, and a spicy take about discovery on the internet being dead (due to hyperpersonalisation).

We're looking at AI-assisted design today. We talked about how the 'designer' title has evolved and how to design with AI without losing your creative voice. Plus, we're breaking down the brand designer vs. product designer debate that blew up on Naija design Twitter few weeks ago.

We're also giving you a free design system template to start designing with AI today.

👍 Product Thumbs Up:

• Dayo Cyrus on Instagram
• @wearegst and their influence on graphic designers making infographics relating to Nigerian corruption

👎 Product Thumbs Down:

• Microsoft Excel redesign
• iOS Photos collection
• Apple Magic mouse (yes, still)

The Evolution of Design Tools

• Mini history lesson: how the term "designer" came to be
• How fast new tools are being shipped right now

Tools We're Watching:

• Claude Code
• Figma's Vectorise tool
• Remotion
• ChatGPT's Atlas

2026 Design Process & Toolkit with AI

• How it differs from the traditional design process
• Working with AI on side projects vs. in big teams
• The hidden costs and trade-offs nobody talks about
• Bypassing developers: building real apps, not just prototypes
• Why you need to pass your design philosophy to AI before anything else

Is AI-Assisted Design Anti-Creative?We tackle this question head-on with personal experiences and honest takes.

Brand Designers vs. Product DesignersWe break down the debate that took over Naija design Twitter a few weeks ago. Hot takes included.

🎁 Free Template: Design Philosophy for AI ToolsWe're sharing our framework for feeding your design philosophy to AI so you can actually build things that match your vision. Download it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uCvDScQATh6JAFtBWgYD-Z3Z51HI2BK_2rAelzamusM/edit?usp=sharing

Follow us on Instagram: @designgistpod

© 2026 Design Gist Podcast