Epic Padel
Padel just landed in the DMV — and Epic Padel is the first dedicated facility to bring it here. They needed a responsive, mobile-first website that did one thing really well: let people book a court online without picking up the phone.
Listening First — Discovery & User Research
I kicked off with a mixed-methods discovery phase: a qualitative survey paired with 1:1 user interviews with 15 Padel enthusiasts. The pattern was loud and clear — nobody wants to call a facility anymore. People are busy. They want to tap a few buttons between meetings and know their court is locked in.
Easy fix, right? Just build an online booking flow. But the deeper I dug into the interview data, the more I realized the real problem wasn't the phone calls — it was that the existing booking platforms were just as frustrating.
I synthesized survey responses and interview transcripts into an affinity diagram, clustering pain points until three themes rose to the top:
FINDING 1
"I don't know which court I booked — there are no photos or details."
FINDING 2
"I want to see blocked time slots so I don't double-book by accident."
FINDING 3
"The steps are confusing. I always end up calling the facility anyway."
That's when it clicked. Players didn't only need an online booking tool. They needed one that actually respected their time.
Problem statement nailed down.
Meet Sam — Persona Development
To keep the real user front and center, I built a persona grounded in the interview findings. Sam Fox is 32, a mortgage loan officer in McLean, and a Padel addict. He plays to blow off steam between client calls and open houses. He doesn't have time to scroll through clunky menus or wonder if a time slot is actually available.
Sam's quote pretty much summed up the project:
"With my busy schedule, I just need to book a court online — at any hour — and know exactly what I'm reserving."
Then I mapped Sam's user journey from "I want to play" to "I'm on the court" — tagging the emotional highs and lows at every step. The frown faces became my design opportunities. The dip at "find real-time availability" pointed straight at the core problem. The frustration at "book a court" told me the booking flow needed a complete rethink. Every painful moment was a chance to design something better.
