Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports globally, attracting recreational players who often organize games with friends or community groups.
However, the process of booking courts and coordinating games is often fragmented across messaging apps, manual booking systems, and phone calls.
Rustic Padel wanted to build a digital platform that simplifies the entire experience — from discovering courts to organizing games and managing memberships.
Problem
Through discussions with the business team and observation of existing workflows, several operational challenges were identified.
Booking Courts Was Not Transparent
Players often needed to contact staff directly to check availability.
This created friction and slowed down the booking process.
Game Coordination Was Manual
Players usually organized games through messaging groups.
This often caused confusion about:
• who had confirmed participation
• payment responsibilities
• court scheduling conflicts
Membership Benefits Were Difficult to Manage
Rustic Padel offers membership packages with different pricing tiers and credit systems.
Without a digital system, tracking credit usage and package validity becomes complicated.
Goal
The project aimed to create a digital platform that enables:
easy court booking
membership management
seamless payment experience
improved operational visibility for venue operators
Users
Players
Recreational players who want to:
• book courts quickly
• organize games with friends
• track membership credits
Venue Operators
Staff responsible for:
• managing court schedules
• handling payments
• monitoring membership usage
Design Challenge
The biggest design challenge was balancing two different user needs:
Players want a simple and fast booking experience, while venue operators need a system capable of managing complex membership rules and pricing logic.
The product needed to hide operational complexity behind a simple user interface.
Product Strategy
The platform was designed around three core product modules.
User Flow
The typical booking journey looks like this:
This flow was designed to reduce the number of steps required to secure a booking.
Design Exploration
During the design process, different booking interfaces were explored.
Calendar-Based Booking
Initial designs displayed availability in a traditional calendar format.
Problem:
This made it difficult for players to quickly compare available courts.
Slot-Based Booking (Final Direction)
The final design uses a slot-based layout where players can quickly scan available time slots. This improves booking speed and visibility.
Reflection
Designing Rustic Padel highlighted the importance of integrating business logic with user experience.
Court booking may appear simple on the surface, but behind the scenes it involves pricing rules, membership credits, and operational constraints.
The challenge was ensuring that this complexity remained invisible to players.
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© 2026 Evan Himawan Saragih
Product and UI/UX Designer