Meet Tassy Omah, the Product and User Experience Designer whose GTB App Design went Viral on Social Media
“I redesigned the GTBank mobile app because I use it. The current UI doesn’t look and feel good.”
The saying “when a thing isn’t broken, don’t fix it” does not hold true for Omah. She saw the need to fix the app, and the hell she did!
Omah is a graduate of Imo State University and a 2020 HNG Internship finalist – a large scale remote internship that trains software developers in Nigeria through a competitive internship process and then places the finalists in jobs.
Tassy Omah is a Product and User Experience Designer with over two years of experience. She co-leads WomenPro Tech – a community designed to educate, empower, support, and inspire young women and girls who are passionate about tech in Owerri, Imo State. She also leads Friends of Figma Owerri, a community of designers and techies who use Figma.
Omah is a star girl! A glance at her portfolio is all the confirmation you need.
Scale My Hustle had a mini chat with Omah, and she shares her experience as a young woman who is finding her place in the tech world.
In describing her career life
I’m so into it! I am so passionate about it because I figured the more I know, the more I can earn.
Did Omah know that the tech industry is for her? You’d be shocked that she wanted to be a doctor!
I didn’t know the tech industry was for me until I got into it. As a child, I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse, according to my parent’s desires. But then, I couldn’t gain admission into the university to study Medicine because my JAMB score was low. I was offered Computer Science instead. Computer science in my institution is a joke, but the people I met were all I needed to understand that I could give this a shot. Sometime in my second year, I got a computer and learned Photoshop for almost 1 year before someone within the community introduced me to a UX guy who introduced me to Figma.
I moved from using Photoshop to making logos and flyers to using Figma for my designs. There’s no way I would have known that tech was for me if not for the people around me – I was motivated by what I saw them do with Figma that I just had to get back to UI design. So I worked on myself by reading books and watching videos, and a lot of things began to make sense to me. I was enjoying it and I couldn’t wait to explore more and do better designs.
On redesigning the GTBank mobile app
I redesigned the GTBank mobile app because I use it. The current UI doesn’t look and feel good. So while trying to create projects to add to my portfolio so I can at least get a job, I thought about it, conducted my research, and continued from there.
The bank is yet to acknowledge Omah’s design, though she tagged them on Twitter and LinkedIn. “I’m creating these projects to build my portfolio, the recognition and reward will come in its due time”, she says.
On her journey into tech so far, and the high and low moments
My journey in tech started officially this year. All this while, I have been doing Photoshop and I was comfortable with it because I had people who paid my bills, but when things toughened, I had to take a look at myself and began working on myself, else I wouldn’t be able to handle projects that come my way.
In January, I started with a friend’s project to apply all that I learned from books, articles, and videos. After that project, which I didn’t finish, I started doing daily UI and stopped on day 15. Then HNG came and I flexed all my creative muscles there and, by God’s grace, I made it to the finals. After the internship, I applied for jobs and I got nothing.
I shared some of the designs I created during the internship on Twitter and someone reached out to me. That was how I got my first gig and designed over 100 screens of a mobile app. I then started getting gigs based on referrals. They didn’t pay so much, the highest I got was #250,000, but I’m proud because I finally have something for my portfolio.
My major challenge is trying to push myself to get better and also get a better job.
On women in the tech industry
I barely have enough work experience to tell about the injustices done to women in the tech industry. I think most women are the ones avoiding tech. I’ve worked with developer communities to organize meetups for women and the men show up more than women. I’ll love to see more women get into tech, be good enough, and be confident in their skills.
Omah has learned to be bold
I used to be scared to show my work. I fear the professionals would rate my designs poorly which would make me feel so bad, but then my friend, Ndubuisi, encouraged me to post my work online. I think to be heard, you need to put yourself out there and show people what you do. Let them talk; you just keep pushing yourself out there. One day, it’ll make sense.
A big thank you to Omah for sharing her tech journey with us and we look forward to seeing her at the top.
Go Omah!