UK-Based Nigerian Innovator Joy Bachashe Samuel Leads Somalens’ Push to Gamify Everyday Health

 

The digital health platform has introduced health missions, streaks and virtual rewards in a major product update aimed at encouraging healthier daily habits.

Somalens, a Nigerian-founded digital health platform registered in the United States, has launched a new gamified health experience designed to help users become more consistent with their everyday wellbeing.

The latest update introduces health missions, progress streaks, levels and SOMA Coins, allowing users to track wellness activities and receive virtual rewards for completing selected actions.

The product development was co-led by UK-based Nigerian technology professional Joy Bachashe Samuel, Co-founder and Lead UX Designer at Somalens. Joy Bachashe Samuel, played a central role in shaping the user experience, redesigning the platform’s home screen and translating the company’s health-engagement goals into accessible product features.

According to the company, the update responds to a common challenge within digital health: many people download health applications but struggle to use them consistently.

Somalens hopes to address this by borrowing familiar engagement principles from gaming and consumer technology and applying them to everyday health management.

From health tasks to achievable missions

Through the updated platform, routine wellness activities are presented as achievable missions. Users can complete actions, build streaks, progress through levels and accumulate SOMA Coins.

The coins earned during the experience are stored within a user’s account and are expected to support reward-based opportunities as the platform develops.

Joy Bachashe Samuel, said the team wanted to move away from digital health experiences that feel overly technical or demanding.

“People already have busy lives, so health technology should make taking care of themselves feel more manageable,” she said. “We designed the new experience to recognise progress, encourage consistency and make every small action feel meaningful.”

Beyond its gamification features, Somalens allows users to complete daily health check-ins, record symptoms, receive personalised wellness insights and manage medication reminders.

The platform is not intended to replace doctors, emergency services or professional medical diagnosis. Instead, it is positioned as a personal health-support tool that helps people pay closer attention to their wellbeing and communicate health information more confidently.

Designing for long-term engagement

User retention remains one of the major challenges facing the growing digital health industry. While many platforms provide health information and tracking tools, users may stop engaging when the experience becomes repetitive or fails to demonstrate visible progress.

Somalens’ new direction places motivation at the centre of its product design.

By showing users their completed missions, current streaks and accumulated rewards, the platform aims to create a clearer connection between daily actions and longer-term wellness goals.

Samuel said the design process required the team to consider more than visual appearance.

“A health product can look beautiful and still fail if people do not understand what to do or do not feel motivated to return,” she explained. “The experience has to be clear, useful and emotionally rewarding.”

As Lead UX Designer, Samuel’s responsibilities have included product research, user-flow development, interface design and collaboration with Somalens’ engineering and product teams.

Her work reflects a growing movement among African technology founders and professionals who are creating digital products for both local and international users.

A Nigerian-founded product with global ambitions

Although Somalens was founded by Nigerians, its international corporate registration and the location of its leadership team reflect the company’s broader ambitions.

Samuel is based in the United Kingdom, while members of the wider team work across different locations. This distributed structure has influenced how the company approaches accessibility, user behaviour and the varied ways people engage with digital health services.

The platform is currently available to users through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, with continued development planned around personalisation, rewards and health engagement.

The company believes its gamified approach could help make preventive health activities more appealing, particularly to younger and digitally active users who are already familiar with streaks, challenges and reward systems.

Making health engagement feel less clinical

For Samuel, the wider objective is to reduce the emotional distance people sometimes feel when interacting with health information.

“Healthcare is serious, but the experience of looking after yourself does not have to feel intimidating,” she said. “If technology can help someone notice a pattern, remember an important action or stay consistent for another day, then it is creating meaningful value.”

The new Somalens experience represents the company’s attempt to combine health awareness with the motivational features commonly found in lifestyle and learning applications.

With missions, streaks, levels and rewards now forming part of its core experience, Somalens is betting that the future of digital health will depend not only on what platforms allow people to do, but also on how those platforms make people feel while doing it.

More information about Somalens is available at www.somalens.com.