Pi Play

A community-driven app that helps players discover matches, book courts, find coaches, and stay updated on events to grow India’s Padel and Pickleball ecosystem.

Project type: End-to-end mobile application

Role: UX designer (reported to Alan Healy, Founder & CEO, Padel India)

Industry: Sports Tech, Media & Entertainment

Tools: Figma, Miro, Zoom

Duration: Q1 2023 - Q4 2023

Problem Statement

Players face challenges in discovering the right partners, booking courts seamlessly, and staying updated with events, resulting in a disjointed and underwhelming playing experience.

Empathize

Understanding the Users and Context

Objective: Understand users, their behaviors, and pain points in the context of sports networking and booking.

Activities Done:

Conducted user interviews with amateur and semi-pro Padel/Pickleball players (both male and female, across age groups).
Observed behaviors at sports venues to identify how players discover games, book courts, and find partners.

Observations:

Players often struggle to find partners at the same skill level and availability.
Court bookings are fragmented across different apps and calls.
Tournaments and coaching opportunities are poorly communicated or scattered.

Define

Identifying the Core Problem

Objective: Crafting a clear problem statement based on gathered insights.

Problem Statement:

Players face challenges in discovering the right partners, booking courts seamlessly, and staying updated with events, resulting in a disjointed and underwhelming playing experience.

User Personas

User Needs:

Help users find compatible players based on skill level, location, availability, and match preferences.
Ensure visibility for coaches and players through profiles and filters.
Booking for matches, coaching sessions, and tournaments in just a few taps.
In-app messaging or group chats to coordinate matches and build connections.

Ideate

Exploring Possible Solutions

Objective: EGenerate solutions that meet user needs across all touchpoints.

User flow

Key Features Considered:

Skill-based match creation (e.g. Intermediate, Women’s Doubles)
Integrated court search and booking engine
Coach discovery + booking system
Community chat groups (city-wise, skill-based)
In-app messaging to coordinate matches
Event discovery and registration
Calendar view of bookings & events

Design Considerations:

Easy onboarding for first-time users
Simple UI with quick filters for match criteria
Familiar UX patterns (like WhatsApp-style chat, map-based court locator)

Prototype

Designing the Solution

Objective: Translate ideas into tangible experiences for feedback and iteration.

High-fidelity Mockups

Key Screens Designed:

Onboarding flow
Home dashboard
Match discovery and detail page
Chat and notification views
Match creation form
Court search filters
Coach profile and booking screen
Group chat layout
Calendar for tournaments and coaching sessions

Test

Validating the Experience

Objective: Validate assumptions, gather real user feedback, and iterate.

Testing Activities:

Conducted remote tests with users (players and coaches)
Used moderated and unmoderated sessions with Figma prototype

Findings and Iterations:

Players appreciated skill-level filtering in match creation.
Court location filters needed clearer UI distinction.
Simplified booking steps
Introduced player rating and match history
Added “Remind Me” and “Add to Calendar” features for events

Impact & Takeaways

Results:

Early beta testing with 200 users across 3 cities
30% week-on-week increase in match creation post onboarding improvements
Coaches reported 2x session visibility within the first month

What I Learned:

Understood the importance of cross-functional collaboration between designers, engineers, and product teams in a highly technical domain.
Early engagement with real users shapes meaningful dashboards
Learned how to translate complex simulation data into clear, visual, actionable insights.

Final Thoughts

The success of Pi Play highlights the importance of combining community, utility, and personalization in a niche sports app. This project taught me the value of empathy-driven design, iterative prototyping, and designing for network effects in community products.