In Benin, if you’re a doctor or a healthcare professional who wants to open a private practice, there’s something you need first:
An official authorization to practice.
Sounds simple. But in reality?
It meant drowning in paperwork, navigating ambiguous procedures, and enduring endless delays across multiple ministries.
No centralized system.
No transparency.
No timeframes.
So when the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with ASIN, GIZ, and Africa Design School, launched a challenge to rethink this process as part of the eConov initiative, our team dove in — not just to build a tool, but to redefine how public service can feel.
The solution was called SANI PRIVA — a digital platform designed to streamline the private practice authorization process from start to finish.
Our goal wasn’t just to "go digital".
It was to create a system where every stakeholder — from the doctor to the Minister’s Cabinet — knows exactly what’s happening, when, and why.
We envisioned two core interfaces:
1. The Front Office
A clear, intuitive space for healthcare professionals to:
→ Submit their request,
→ Track progress in real-time,
→ Get notified at every stage
2. The Back Office
A dynamic dashboard for administrators to:
→ Validate, assign, and approve applications
→ Communicate across departments
→ Monitor the system with transparency and control
The process: sprinting with strategy.
With only one week to deliver a fully conceptualized solution, we adopted a design sprint approach — blending user research, UX strategy, and service design.
Here's how we broke it down:
Understand
→ Mapped the existing workflow,
→ Spotted redundancies and friction points,
→ Conducted interviews with medical staff and public agents
Ideate
→ Built user journeys for each stakeholder (SRS agent, ministry staff, super admin),
→ Defined a minimum viable process that could scale
Design
→ Prototyped both interfaces (front & back) on Figma
→ Used Miro to visualize systems and feedback loops
→ Applied inclusive design principles to reduce tech anxiety
Biggest challenges. Boldest moves.
Bureaucratic Complexity
We untangled the admin spaghetti — removing unnecessary steps and reorganizing responsibilities.
Resistance to Tech
We designed with clarity and simplicity first, reducing the cognitive load and using real-world analogies during testing.
Time Crunch
With a ticking clock, we kept our scope focused and our decision-making collaborative. Every choice had to serve the core user journey.
The impact: from friction to flow.
When we presented SANI PRIVA to government officials and project partners, the reaction was immediate:
The platform didn’t just look sleek — it worked. It responded to real pain points. It felt like the future.
Today, the project is being showcased for potential rollout and stands as a blueprint for human-centered digital public services across the country.
SANI PRIVA isn’t just a project. It’s a manifesto: that public services in Africa can be efficient, and user-first.
This experience reinforced everything I believe about UX: That good design isn’t just about pixels — it’s about making systems humane, no matter how complex they are.
