Designing a self-service rental experience for the world’s fastest-growing racket sport

A UX/UI Case Study

Final project for General Assembly’s UX design bootcamp.

Role: UX/UI Designer

Team: Myself and fellow designer Miriam Bentley

Client: Nir Barda — Israeli entrepreneur working in sports tech rental

Timeline: 8 weeks

Platform(s): An MVP mobile app and smart locker interface

Tools: Figma, FigJam, Slack, Notion, Google Forms, Zoom

Summary

The Problem

Padel clubs are rapidly digitising court booking, but equipment rental is stuck in slow, staff-dependent processes. Players often have to queue at reception, ask about availability, pay separately, and deal with unclear return systems, creating friction in a sport designed to feel social and accessible.

The Challenge

Design a fast self-service rental experience that allows players to rent, collect, and return rackets through smart lockers while helping clubs in Israel reduce operational pressure and unlock a scalable new revenue stream.

But how do you make renting padel rackets feel as effortless as booking the court? That was the challenge we set out to solve for our client, Nir Barda.

The Client

Nir is transitioning from luggage storage systems into a self-service rental business, leveraging existing locker-based infrastructure to support this shift. The goal for him was to move away from tennis and into padel, a sport where rental demand is rising rapidly.

At the core of his idea is a machine-first experience, with a smart locker and touchscreen interface acting as the primary touchpoint for users on-site. Over time, this hardware-led approach is designed to connect seamlessly with a digital ecosystem, evolving into an integrated court and racket booking app that allows players to discover courts, reserve time slots, and pre-book equipment in a single, frictionless journey. But he wasn’t looking for “just an app". He wanted to validate whether this could become a scalable business.

The Solution

We designed a mobile-first rental system that allows players to reserve, collect, and return padel rackets through smart lockers located at clubs. Instead of queueing at reception or relying on staff availability, players can:

1. Select equipment through the app
2. Pay digitally
3. Receive an access code
4. Unlock a smart locker onsite
5. Return equipment after play

The goal was not simply to automate rental; it was to make equipment access feel like a natural extension of the booking journey.

Task Flows: Mobile App

Task 1: Pre-Booking a Racket | Task 2: Modify an Existing Booking | Task 3: Returning a Racket

Task Flows: Locker Interface

Task 4: Rent Items via Locker | Task 5: Collect items from Locker | Task 6: Return Items to Locker

Project Walkthrough

[embed]In-depth project walkthrough

What the Experience Looks Like

The rental experience was designed around one key moment:

A player arrives at the club minutes before their game and realises they need a racket.

From that point onwards, every interaction needed to feel:

• Fast
• Clear
• Reliable
• Beginner-friendly

We intentionally minimised:

• Waiting
• Staff dependency
• Complex onboarding
• Unclear instructions
• Extra decision-making under time pressure

Intended Outcomes

For players:

• Faster access to equipment
• Reduced pre-game stress
• Confidence that a racket will be available

For clubs:

• Additional revenue stream
• Reduced staff workload
• More scalable operations

For the client:

• A testable MVP to validate real-world demand
• Proof of operational feasibility
• A foundation for expansion across multiple clubs

How Success Would Be Measured

Because this was a concept MVP, success would be measured by:

• Rental conversion rate
• Time to complete a booking
• Locker pickup success rate
• Return compliance rate
• Repeat rental usage
• Club adoption rate
• Overall user satisfaction

What Could Cause the Product to Fail?

Potential failure points revealed important design considerations:

• Locker malfunction without visible support options
• Poor-quality rental equipment reducing trust
• Unclear return expectations leading to penalties
• Too many steps for users arriving in a hurry

This reinforced a core insight:

Speed alone was not enough. Self-service must feel dependable.

Overview

Why Now?

Padel is currently the world’s fastest-growing racket sport, but most clubs still rely on manual, staff-dependent rental processes.

We wanted to find out if this was true.

The Current Problem

Players often have to:

• Find a staff member
• Ask what is available
• Pay separately
• Judge equipment quality themselves
• Remember how and when to return items

That friction disrupts a sport designed to be social, easy, and spontaneous.

Assumptions

Before beginning our research, we documented several key assumptions. This was important to validate whether our early thinking actually reflected real user behaviour.

Some assumptions before our research

Overall, we found casual players and beginners would be the primary rental audience.

Why This Matters

If true, the experience needed to prioritise speed, clarity, and low commitment over advanced equipment customisation. Going forward, we sought to validate (or debunk) these key assumptions.

What Success Looks Like

The goal we were trying to achieve

Research Goal

To understand how padel players access equipment today and define what a better self-service experience should look like.

Exploration

Market Comparison: Israel vs UK

Market comparison

Both Israel and the UK are experiencing rapid padel growth from niche to mainstream. While court infrastructure is scaling quickly, supporting services like equipment access are lagging behind, creating a clear gap in the player experience.

Competitor Analysis

We kicked off the research phase by dividing our chosen competitors into three groups:

Direct Competitors

Direct Competitors

What We Learned

Both direct competitors focused heavily on hardware functionality but less on onboarding, reassurance, or broader service experience.

Indirect Competitors

Indirect Competitors

We looked at traditional clubs and sports retailer Decathlon. These were indirect competitors because they solved the same user need — equipment access — through different models.

What We Learned

Users will often avoid renting entirely by:

• Borrowing from friends
• Purchasing low-cost rackets
• Choosing clubs with included equipment

This reinforced the importance of convenience and trust in the rental process.

The Lateral Competitor

Playtomic’s assessment

We identified four main patterns:

• Digital booking vs physical friction — Most clubs had modern digital booking systems, but equipment access still relied on manual staff interaction, creating a disconnected experience between booking and playing.
• Hardware-first experiences — Direct competitors focused heavily on the locker technology itself but paid less attention to onboarding, reassurance, support, and the wider user journey.
• Trust and clarity were missing — Across competitors and club visits, users often faced unclear instructions, confusing access flows, and uncertainty around equipment quality, returns, or damage responsibility.
• Opportunity for integrated ecosystems — Platforms like Playtomic already own the booking journey, revealing an opportunity to integrate rental seamlessly into an existing player ecosystem rather than treating it as a separate service.

Empathising

Contextual Inquiry

We individually visited clubs in Israel and the UK, finding that onboarding friction was the most common similarity.

Padel Warehouse 52 — UK

Snapshots of Padel Warehouse 52

The main observations were:

• Unclear onboarding
• Disconnected systems
• No flexible equipment layer
• Limited upsell opportunities

Padel Warehouse 52 could resolve these issues and unlock new revenue streams through on-demand equipment access and tiered value bundles.

Padel Israel — Tel Aviv Sports center (TAU)

Snapshots of Padel Israel, Tel Aviv

At Padel Israel, we also observed a confusing entry process, in addition to:

• QR-code friction
• Manual code lockers
• Limited guidance for beginners

Understanding ‘Onboarding Friction’

One of the biggest recurring issues at both clubs was onboarding. For first-time users, even basic actions felt fragmented.

• Court booking happened on one system
• Access happened through QR codes
• Equipment pickup required another process
• Return expectations were unclear

This mattered because casual players are highly sensitive to friction.

If the experience feels stressful before play begins, casual users may avoid renting altogether.

That insight pushed us toward:

• Fewer steps
• Clearer instructions
• More visible support
• Simpler terminology

Surveys

We conducted surveys with recreational racket-sport players, aged 21+.

The goal was to understand:

• Rental behaviour
• Equipment ownership
• Arrival habits
• Comfort with self-service systems

Key Findings

Survey Results

We found Padel is significantly more popular than tennis, with most players bringing their own equipment and equally planning ahead whilst also arriving very close to their booking slot.

Important Context

The “bring their own” statistic applied across both tennis and padel respondents.

This mattered because it revealed that rental users would likely represent:

• Beginners
• Casual players
• Infrequent players
• Spontaneous players

That confirmed our target audience's direction.

User Interviews

Interviews helped us move beyond behaviour into motivation. We conducted 10 interviews with casual and frequent padel/tennis players who repeatedly emphasised speed and simplicity:

“Renting a racket… should just be a 30-second operation.”

Interview Snapshots

However, users also expressed anxiety around:

• Damage responsibility

"What happens if the racket you unlock is damaged?”

• Failed lockers

“I’m unwilling to pay for facilities, lockers, or structured services, I’d rather take my stuff with me and keep it in my field of view.”

• Lack of support

“If something goes wrong, there should be support available by phone or WhatsApp.”

• Equipment cleanliness

“Once a racket’s used, are they being cleaned? Are things being cleaned? Like, how hygienic is everything?”

This reframed convenience. Convenience did not simply mean ‘fast’.

It meant:

• Predictable
• Low-stress
• Easy to recover from errors

Affinity Mapping

We grouped insights into three major themes:

Common Themes

This synthesis helped us prioritise which problems to solve first.

Defining

Personas

At this stage, two personas were defined by contrasting motivations and relationships with Padel.

The Committed Improver

Meet Lior, our secondary persona

Lior represents a player who views padel as a serious hobby and priorities high-quality equipment and expert guidance over basic automation. His experience hinges on a reliable, smart service that guarantees performance-grade gear and human-backed support to ensure his progression isn’t hindered by any technical or equipment failures.

At this stage, we clarified who we were designing for. Although committed players had concerns around quality, the strongest opportunity existed with casual players.

That led us to focus on our primary persona:

The Casual Convenience Player

Meet Noam, our primary persona

Noam represents:

• New players
• Social players
• Low-commitment users
• People without their own equipment

His biggest frustration was friction instead of the lack of advanced features.

He wanted to “Show up, play, and not overthink the details.”

Why Noam Became our Primary Persona

Research consistently showed casual users were:

• Most likely to rent
• Most sensitive to onboarding problems
• Most affected by unclear systems

Designing for Noam forced us to simplify.

If the experience worked well for players like him, it would likely work for more experienced players too.

Problem Statement

“Noam needs a fast, intuitive way to rent and return a padel racket on-site because delays, unclear processes, and equipment uncertainty disrupt his game and create frustration.”

Ideating

MVP Development

With a clearer understanding of user behaviour, we moved into ideation.

Ideation workshop with the client in FigJam

We used Crazy 8s, rapid sketching and dot voting to explore multiple solution concepts with the client.

Key Questions

• How might we make rental understandable in seconds?
• How might we reduce dependence on staff?
• How might we make equipment feel trustworthy?

Concept Directions

Concept directions from our workshop

The strongest idea we arrived at was a compartmentalised smart locker system with:

• Tiered equipment options
• Bundle add-ons
• Flexible locker access
• Shared rental support

While the smart locker system was our strongest concept, we recognised it fell into a ‘nice-to-have’ category. To create a leaner MVP, we decided to simplify the initial journey and focus on the core functionality required for Noam to access rackets.

The MVP Journey

Noam’s journey before club arrival

Here, Noam preemptively manages his rental by selecting and paying for a racket through the app before arriving at the club, allowing him to follow pickup instructions to collect his equipment, play his game, and return it to finalise the process.

Noam’s journey at the club

We then mapped out Noam’s requirement for a ‘show up and play’ experience. However, to avoid overbuilding, we narrowed the experience to one essential flow:

1. Realises he needs a racket
2. Selects equipment
3. Pays digitally
4. Receives access code
5. Unlocks locker
6. Plays
7. Returns equipment

Every feature outside this flow was considered secondary.

That prioritisation helped keep the project grounded.

Design

From Sketches to Wireframes

Lo-fi sketches to mid-fi wireframes (rental flow)

Early sketches defined the start of the core user journey and navigation, with a menu and locker-scanning feature, which were then translated into structured wireframes.

Lo-fi sketches to mid-fi wireframes (Equipment Booking)

These initial sketches define a three-step booking flow — select, equipment booking, and view items — designed to streamline how users choose and secure equipment. The sketches were translated into wireframes that clarified the interactions, ensuring a simple and intuitive rental.

Initially, we focused heavily on discovery and browsing. But research showed users wanted speed, not exploration.

This led to major simplifications in the final solution that was eventually shown to users during the testing phase.

Testing

Goals

We aimed to see if our chosen 5 users could independently book, modify, and return equipment in the prototype while uncovering any issues, friction, or confusion in the flow. Alongside this, we tracked efficiency metrics (time on task, clicks, errors) and collected qualitative feedback to understand users’ rental expectations, mental models, and pain points.

We wanted to measure:

• Can users complete tasks without guidance?
• Where does confusion happen?
• How quickly can users recover from mistakes?
• Does the experience feel trustworthy?

Tasks

Participants were asked to:

• Prebook (rent a racket)
• Modify their booking
• Complete a walk-in rental (at the locker)
• Return a racket

Defining these tasks clearly helped contextualise later results.

Qualitative Results

User feedback from the first round of testing

Findings

Users described the flow as straightforward but repeatedly highlighted uncertainty around:

• Returns
• Payment responsibilities
• Damage handling
• Support availability

Several comments directly shaped design iterations, as one user described:

“I can’t see any help buttons down here [nav bar].”

Quantitative Results

Average errors/clicks per task

How Our Assumptions Held Up

This was one of the most important learning moments in the project. The product needed to feel supported but not fully automated so as not to alienate users.

Recommendations

User recommendations

Design Changes

Clearer instructional elements

Split payments needed clearer feedback

Updates panel accessed via the side menu

Delivery

Visual Inspiration

We chose a clean, high-contrast visual language to reflect Padel's energy and pace whilst keeping the app easy to scan and use. We deviated from the green-heavy look (common in tennis apps), aiming for the design to feel set apart from the competition.

Typography

The fonts selected were Neue Haas Grotesk for headings – it has a clean, modern, premium feel and reflects the aspirational, design-led culture surrounding Padel. We paired this with Inter for body text due to its legibility on screen. This balance allowed the app to feel accessible to casual players.

Colours

The colour palette used was minimal to balance a premium sports aesthetic with accessibility and clarity. Imperial Blue creates a strong and trustworthy brand identity, while the accent colours help important actions, notifications, and successes stand out for the user.

Outcomes

Our final concept delivered a streamlined self-service rental experience designed specifically around casual and beginner padel players.

More importantly, the project gave the client:

• A validated MVP direction
• Clear operational considerations
• Stronger understanding of user trust requirements

Key Learnings

Speed alone does not create convenience

Users value clarity, reassurance, and recoverability just as much as efficiency.

Small UX decisions build trust

Microcopy, support visibility, and clearer return expectations had an outsized impact on confidence.

Designing for beginners simplifies the entire system

Prioritising Noam helped us remove unnecessary complexity throughout the experience.

Great sports experiences extend beyond the court

The strongest business opportunities often exist in the surrounding service ecosystem.

What’s Next

If we continued the project, the next phase would focus on:

1. Real-World Pilot Testing

Testing the service with actual locker hardware and real club traffic.

2. Technology Refinement

Exploring:

• QR unlock
• Live availability
• Better damage tracking
• Faster support escalation

3. Platform Expansion

In the long term, the system could evolve into a connected ecosystem supporting:

• Players
• Clubs
• Venue owners
• Equipment suppliers

The opportunity is no longer just equipment rental.

It is creating a connected service layer around the sport itself.

Final Reflections

At the start of this project, we thought we were designing a locker experience.

The most valuable insight was not that users wanted automation but that all users wanted to feel confident in their choices.

Confident that:

• Equipment would be available
• Instructions would be clear
• Problems could be resolved quickly
• The experience would not interrupt their game

That shift fundamentally changed how we approached the product.

For me, it reinforced one of the most important lessons:

Great experiences are not defined by technology. They are defined by how little friction users feel while trying to achieve something they care about.

Client Feedback

Nir also expressed his appreciation for a validated MVP ready for further development, praising the organisation and initiative shown throughout. As the sports rental industry evolves, this project establishes a strong, adaptable foundation for future growth.

Thanks for reading! 🙏