iRecharge 3.0
iRecharge had been quietly growing for years — more services, more use cases, more users. But with all that growth, the interface became cluttered and workflows felt heavier. iRecharge 3.0 wasn’t just about giving the app a much-needed facelift, it was a structural rethink of how bill payments worked and how the experience should feel.
MY ROLE
Design & Product Lead
TIMELINE
Sep 2024 - Nov 2025
LIVE LINK
CONTEXT: THE CHALLENGE
Managing different user types in one app can be pretty dicey, and iRecharge had been doing that for a while.
The product started as a bill payments app — the kind you open to buy airtime, pay for electricity and TV subscriptions, that sort of thing. Both everyday consumers and merchant businesses lived on the platform, and for a while, it worked. But merchant needs kept growing. They weren't just paying bills anymore; they were integrating APIs, managing branches, and running full scale bill-vending operations for their own customers.
Trying to fit all of that into a consumer-first app started to feel like running a company from a personal bank account. So, we split the experiences. Merchants moved into their own dedicated platform, Accelerate (see case study), allowing iRecharge to focus exclusively on consumers.
Our initial goal for iRecharge 3.0 was simple: remove the merchant flows, refresh the UI, and improve existing experiences. But...projects have a way of expanding on you 😅. The product vision grew, and we wanted to build something beyond bill payments. So we made the shift to becoming a lifestyle payments app designed for everyday financial moments.
THE PROCESS
Getting the Product Strategy Right
Working on this project as Design and Product Lead meant being deep in the details while still keeping an eye on the bigger picture. From stakeholder meetings to align on objectives, requirements and feature prioritisation, to setting timelines and milestones, running user research and leading a cross-functional team.
Before jumping into solutions, we went back to existing user feedback, sorting through reviews, suggestions, and pain points that had accumulated quietly over time, waiting to be heard. It wasn't glamorous work but it gave us an honest picture of where the product was falling short and what users actually wanted. And honesty, I've found, is always a better starting point than assumption.
Figjam brainstorming session
Design System and Component Library
Starting with a new design system and component library was one of the best decisions we made. It served as a shared language for the whole product, keeping designers and engineers on the same page without the usual "what I ordered vs what I got" back and forth.
** Of every component in the design system, the side navbar (on web) and payment method components are my personal favourites! 🤭 🫶🏾
Reimagining the Core Experiences
With the design system in place, we moved into redesigning the core screens and flows: landing page, dashboard and service purchase flows, across both the web and mobile app. These were screens our users interacted with every single day, so getting them right mattered.
We also worked in agile sprints, so usability testing was happening alongside design and development the whole time, some of which sent us back to the drawing board entirely. You'll see some of those iterations play out through before-and-after comparisons in this case study.
Showcasing the redesigned core screens (swipe/drag to view)
Once the core experiences were sorted, we started exploring new features. Here's how each one came together.
A Home for All Services
As our services expanded, we built a dedicated services page that showcased everything iRecharge offered. It gave users a much clearer sense of the product's full range. Each service got its own distinct look with custom 3D icons (Icons generated using JSON prompts on ChatGPT 4o)
Scheduling Payments
Users could set up individual or bulk payments in advance, debited directly from their wallet, without returning to the app to repeat themselves every time. We also gave each scheduled payment a unique account number, so users could simply transfer the exact amount whenever they were ready to process it.
Schedule payment screens (swipe/drag to view)
AI Integrations — Payments Through Conversation
For this, the question here was: “what if payments could also come to where people already were?” That question led us to building an AI assistant inside WhatsApp — somewhere people were already comfortable and trusting. Users could chat with the assistant, make payments, and complete transactions through natural conversation.
“Utility Intelligence”
Some of the most recurring questions our support team got were: "What tariff band am I on?" "Do I have debt on this meter?" "Can I get a proof of address from my electricity payment?" These were real, everyday pain points. So we built features to tackle each one.
Check Meter Band: Most electricity users in Nigeria have no idea what tariff band their meter sits on, even though it directly affects what they pay. The Check Meter Band feature lets users look this up directly from the iRecharge app.
Check Meter Debt: Here's a scenario that plays out more often than it should: a user buys electricity units, but doesn’t get a token. Or worse, they get a token but the units vanish almost immediately. Nine times out of ten, there's outstanding debt on the meter swallowing every purchase. The Check Meter Debt feature gave users visibility into any outstanding debts on their meter beforehand.
Proof of Address: We saw an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Every electricity payment already carried address information. So we built a feature that let users generate an official utility bill from their most recent transaction, ready to use for banks, visa applications, or any KYC verification process that needed proof of address.
RESULTS & IMPACT
We officially launched the new version of the iRecharge app and the difference showed up almost immediately. Flows that once felt heavy became lighter, faster, more direct.
💯
Task completion rates improved by 75%, session times shortened and drop-off on flows like KYC dropped significantly
🤝🏽
The app didn't feel unfamiliar, existing users adapted quickly
📲
Wave of new users with 60% spike in website traffic, and increase in app downloads across both platforms, post-launch
⏳
Users weren’t just getting things done, but they were getting them done faster and leaving satisfied
iRecharge 3.0 is live on both the App Store and Play Store, and you can visit the website too. Feel free to check it out and see how it all came together.
RETROSPECTIVE
iRecharge 3.0 was personal. It wasn’t just another project I worked on, but one that I carried from discovery to post-launch, through every decision and every sprint. Leading design and product strategy while also leading the team doing the actual building. There's something about leading a product that makes every decision feel weightier, in the best possible way.
And of course, s/o to my incredible team I built this with. 10/10 experience, really ;)
