By Tosin Clegg
In a world increasingly defined by digital tools and on-demand skills, some people chase trends while others build for meaning.
Nkeiruka Ifeonu is unmistakably the latter. A product designer with a clear mission, her work lives at the bridge of everyday problems and practical technology.
Whether she’s improving access to healthcare, transforming how people shop online and physically, or mentoring the next wave of design talent, Nkeiruka focuses on one thing: making digital products that work for people.
Her career has been defined by this clarity. From the outset, she has pursued design as a tool for creating tangible change, not just smoother flows and better visuals, but real solutions that improve how people live, access care, manage time, and make decisions.
At OnehealthNG, she led the design of Onewellness, a healthcare app that has grown into one of the most trusted digital platforms in Nigeria. Today, it serves over 100,000 users, many of whom rely on it for up to 60 percent of their day-to-day healthcare needs.
This impact has significantly contributed to OnehealthNG’s growth within the healthcare space and also securing funds and grants from Bills & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google black Founders, GIZ(Developpp) and Chuey Ventures Funds.
Nkeiruka designed and led the development of critical features like the pharmacy marketplace, which allows users to easily compare and order medications, the subscribe and save feature which makes recurring treatments more affordable, the doctor’s consultation feature which enables patients to consult healthcare professionals without leaving their homes and a detailed hospital directory that helps users locate accredited healthcare facilities with ease.
She brought the same discipline and insight to Jump n Pass, a self-checkout app that has reshaped the in-person shopping experience across Nigeria.
She led the design of the barcode scan flow, a critical feature that allows users to scan and check out products without standing in line. Her design process prioritised speed, ease, and security. Through live testing, feedback loops, and smart design choices, she helped create a product that users trust and adopted quickly.
That single feature was instrumental in driving the app’s early adoption, contributing directly to Jump n Pass securing N25 million in funding at the Zenith Bank Hackathon and continuing to drive revenue into 2025.
Her work isn’t just about interface design; it is about providing strategic solutions to user problems. She helps identify user pain points in retail environments and transforms them into a seamless digital experience that retailers and customers alike can rally behind. She is deeply involved in usability testing, interaction design, and flow iteration, ensuring the product scales and performs reliably under pressure.
Another key aspect of her career is her support for women in STEM through mentorship, providing guidance, structure, and encouragement for those navigating male-dominated spaces. Her mentorship isn’t about checking boxes.
It’s about helping people recognise their value and take meaningful steps forward. Many of her mentees now work in product design across the globe, citing her influence as a key part of their journeys. Her approach to mentorship is grounded, hands-on, and personal. She meets people where they are, providing honest feedback and actionable advice. Her sessions are equal parts inspiration and instruction, a rare blend that leaves a lasting impact.
She’s also a generous contributor to the design community. Her open source resources on Figma have reached over 3,000 designers, offering everything from design handoff kit to UX research templates. Her UX audit toolkit has helped design teams rethink how they identify and solve problems. By sharing her work openly, she’s creating space for collective learning and pushing the industry forward in quiet but powerful ways.
What truly sets Nkeiruka apart is her unwavering focus on impact. Her projects are not driven by hype or the latest trends, but by listening, learning, and iterating based on real-life user needs.
She sees design not just as a creative discipline but as a powerful form of advocacy, a way to shift power into the hands of everyday people. She doesn’t just deliver innovative solutions, but impactful results. Her design systems are consistent, scalable, and thoughtful. Her leadership style is calm, clear, and rooted in empathy. Her commitment to growth, both hers and the digital technology sector, shows in every product launch, mentorship session, and team collaboration she leads.
Nkeiruka Ifeonu is building carefully, intentionally, and with others in mind. Her work echoes, through the products she’s built, the people she’s mentored, and the systems she’s improved. In a time when the digital world moves fast and often without focus, she remains grounded in what matters, building things that actually help. That is the real power of design. And Nkeiruka is using as it was meant to be used.
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