Nairobi National Museum: Restoring Access to Public Heritage
A national museum should feel welcoming — not like a government checkpoint. But when Kenya moved all public payments to a mandatory online portal, buying a museum ticket suddenly meant creating a full tax account, filling out 12 fields and hoping your foreign bank card wouldn't get blocked. Entry queues stretched to 15 minutes. I redesigned the whole intake into a simple guest flow — 3 taps, no account, 45 seconds to get through the gate.
Lead Product & Service Designer
Jun – Aug 2026
Unsolicited Case Study
The Friction
Kenya's mandatory cashless eCitizen mandate forced casual museum visitors to fill out a 12-field tax account at the gate. Foreign cards were blocked by SMS OTPs and thick stone walls created dead zones, stretching lines to 15 minutes.
The Insight
Civic tax infrastructure should never gate cultural leisure. International tourists and local families need an account-free guest checkout that works offline and eliminates manual data entry in the hot sun.
The Outcome
A 3-tap guest flow with dual payment rails (1-tap M-Pesa for locals, camera OCR card scanner for tourists) and offline QR passes, slashing gate intake latency from 15 minutes to 45 seconds.
What Actually Happens at the Front Door
In late 2023, the Kenyan government required all public payments to go through the eCitizen portal — no more cash at the counter.
The idea behind it was fair enough — better financial tracking. But in practice, it made getting into the museum genuinely difficult:
- Account walls for everyone: International tourists and walk-in visitors had to create a full government tax account — 12 form fields, password rules, email verification — just to buy a ticket to look at fossils.
- Foreign cards getting blocked: The payment system kept triggering SMS verification codes that overseas visitors couldn't receive without local roaming.
- No signal inside the building: The museum's thick 1929 stone walls block most mobile signal, so visitors couldn't even load the government portal once they were inside.
The result: 15-minute queues at the gate, stranded visitors and front-desk staff who couldn't help because they were legally banned from accepting cash.
Voice of the Visitor: Ground Reality at the Gate
Public visitor feedback after Kenya's cashless mandate revealed recurring friction that overshadowed the museum collections inside:
"The museum itself is well worth a visit, but the entrance process was frustrating. They completely refuse cash, and the mandatory government payment website kept declining our foreign cards with SMS codes we couldn't receive on roaming. We had to get help from a local guide just to pay."
International Visitor Feedback
TripAdvisor Review · Foreign Card Blocker
"Arrived with cash ready, only to be told everything has to go through eCitizen. Having to stand in the sun at the gate creating an account and filling in personal details on my phone just to see the exhibits is completely unnecessary."
Tourist Entry Feedback
TripAdvisor Review · Gate Account Friction
"The queue at the ticket desk was stalled because families were stuck on their phones trying to register and pay online. The staff were trying their best, but the system creates a massive bottleneck when multiple groups arrive at once."
Weekend Visitor Feedback
Visitor Review · Group Queue Bottleneck
Who's Actually Coming to the Museum
01. The Independent Backpacker
International TouristTraveling through East Africa with an eSIM and a multi-currency card like Wise or Revolut. No local phone number, so SMS verification codes don't arrive. Just needs a simple card payment that doesn't ask for a Kenyan ID.
02. The Business Traveler
Short-Stay VisitorIn Nairobi for a conference, squeezing in a museum visit between meetings. Has about 90 minutes. If getting a ticket takes more than a few minutes, they'll just leave.
03. The Local Family
Domestic ResidentKenyan parents bringing two or three kids on a weekend outing. They pay everything with M-Pesa. Need to pick tickets for the whole family quickly without typing each person's name into a government form.
10 Steps Reduced to 3 Taps
The basic idea: a government tax system shouldn't stand between families and a museum.
Five Screens That Removed the Bottleneck
Every screen was designed around one clear principle: get people through the gate without asking for unnecessary information.
Automatic Currency & Tier Selection
Clear upfront rates for Citizens, East African Residents and International Visitors — avoiding surprise fees at checkout.
12 Fields Compressed into Just 2
No passwords, no security questions, no account registration. Just a name and an email to receive the tickets.
1-Tap M-Pesa STK Push
Kenyan visitors simply enter their phone number and receive an instant PIN prompt on their screen — zero card typing required.
Camera Card Scanner (OCR)
International tourists scan their card with their phone camera in one second, bypassing 16-digit manual inputs while standing in line.
Offline QR Turnstile Pass
Passes are cached locally and sent as a downloadable PDF, so turnstiles can verify tickets even if phone signal drops in the lobby.
Redesigned: 2-Field Guest Intake & Unified Payment Rails
Cleaner layout, better-organized order summary and payment cards that feel familiar and trustworthy.
Guest Checkout
Where should we send your passes?
Instant email delivery after payment.
Credit or Debit Card
Visa, Mastercard · Camera Scan
M-Pesa Express
Instant 1-tap PIN prompt
█ Secure checkout
Interactive Ticket Simulator
Try the guest checkout flow yourself — it takes about 45 seconds:
Nairobi National Museum
Guest Checkout Prototype
Adults
KSh 200 / ea
Children
KSh 100 / ea
Total Due
KSh 200
Pass Generated · Latency: 1.2s
Encrypted offline turnstile QR pass issued for 1 Adult (Citizen). Ready for scan without network connection.
Dill: Supermarket Price Transparency →
Bringing scattered supermarket deals from paper flyers into one clean screen.