OverviewResearchUser TestingIdeationMetrics

Bounce

Paddle Tennis Booking App  |  2022

My Role

UX Design, UX Research, Prototyping

Team

Zean Wu
Doris Ma
Zia Oh

Tools

Figma, Photoshop

Timeline

12 Weeks

Overview

This was a team project that involved finding Digital Solutions in Urban Spaces, identifying pain points for a niche group of paddle tennis players.

Bounce is a platform that enables paddle tennis enthusiasts to easily book matches with friends and engage in a vibrant social community, fostering growth and camaraderie among players.

Problem

Our team identified an outdated queuing system in the paddle tennis courts of Venice Beach, CA.

Outcome

A court booking app that emphasizes community growth and friendly matches with all players.

Mission Statement

How may we prevent wasting player’s times at the courts and create a better sense of community through a social booking platform.

Easy Booking Flow

Simple booking process, complete in a few steps, gets players in the game quickly.

Extended Booking

In this culture, duration isn't a concern to players, those next in the queue acknowledge long extended sessions.

Vibrant Community

Community takes priority, emphasizing social connections, friendly competition, and a good time. Frequent tournaments and events further unite the community.

Court Map

We've included a court map in the public kiosk to assist infrequent players in easily locating the court they've booked.

User Research

My team and I spent many days in guerrilla research by immersing ourselves within the paddle tennis community to understand their values and learn contextual insights.

Conducted 18 interviews. Additionally, 13 individuals completed a usability test.

48%

Of interviewees were not aware of court rules
Many of whom were tourists, had no idea about the insider knowledge (i.e. traditional method of queuing) among the locals.

88%

Of interviewees play for exercise and community
This became one of the most important insights that later pivoted our product goals.

Invalidated Assumptions

Players are provided rackets to use during their session. Players need to sign up to play on a court.

In fact, a more analog-style queueing system takes place between sessions and isn't common knowledge, especially among new players.

Validated Assumptions

Players have to wait for courts during peak hours, they prefer to play paddle tennis when the weather is nice, and most players go to the courts to play with others vs solo.

There is a strong connection between playing with non-frequent and frequent players. In other words, a sense of community and friendship.

Unspoken Court Insights

The courts at Venice Beach host a showmanship-driven sport, attracting numerous onlookers who pause to witness the performances. Understanding this information helps new players to familiarize with different court sections.

Persona Building

We discovered that there are a spectrum of players who range from varying playing frequencies.
This discovery helped us to create journey maps and personas that helped us to think through the product integrated into a player's lifestyle.
Soon thereafter, our competitive analysis
allowed us to find gaps and opportunities from our competitors.

Player Frequency

Persona 1

Persona 2

Sketch Scenario

We wanted to narrate a user journey that would help us and our stakeholders easily visualize how our app could integrate into their lives.

Experience Map

Competitive Analysis

We discovered a gap among all our competitors which resonated with our audience—lack of a community-building social platform.

Testing & Iterations

We hit the courts frequently to seek direct feedback from our audience.

13 individuals completed a usability test.

46%

Of participants didn't understand tennis terms
Our assumptions regarding pick up games versus playing with friends missed the mark for he most part.

100%

Of participants had a high task completion rate
We received great feedback from our users.

Task Completion Rate

Seamless Booking

Players can choose specific courts, hours, and times for that day.

Ensure Fairness

Players with longer sessions can select time slots of up to two hours.

Success Metrics

• Net Promoter Score
• Average Session Length / Frequency
• Registration Rate
• Churn Rate
• Number of successful bookings vs attempted bookings

Insights Synthesis

It became clear that one our main features was to bridge the gap between frequent players who have insider knowledge (traditional queueing system + court rules) with non frequent players who don’t.