Express UX

Pickleball Coordination App

Designing the shortest path from “I want to play” to playing.

Players don’t need another pickleball app. They need less work finding and coordinating a good game.

Role
Product Strategy, Research, UX/Product Design, AI Strategy
Product
Mobile app
Status
In development
Two pickleball players on a Colorado court beside the app's calendar, home and notifications screens
~75
player conversations + interviews
10/11
survey respondents use group texts to coordinate
8/11
use multiple pickleball apps/services
~15
formative concept reviews

01 · Learn

Plenty of tools. Players still piece the game together themselves.

Interviews, survey data and competitor reviews all pointed to the same thing: finding play and coordinating it still takes too much work.

  • Group texts still dominate.

    10 of 11 survey respondents use them to coordinate.

  • Players juggle systems.

    Groups, court apps, schedules, weather and ratings live in different places.

  • The market is fragmented.

    Competitors solve useful slices, but the player still puts the pieces together.

Competitive landscape comparing pickleball apps by capability, alongside screenshots of existing discovery, matching, playability, scheduling and group tools
Market review: overlapping capabilities and different strengths, but no single low-effort play decision.

02 · Define

The problem is finding + coordinating.

A good game only happens when the right people, time, place, fit and conditions line up. The direction became: reduce the work between wanting to play and actually playing.

  • Who
  • When
  • Where
  • Fit
  • Conditions

03 · Design

Make the system do more of the work.

The early screens were built for function and flow testing, not final visual polish. Final visual design is still in progress.

Functional prototype home screen showing today's match, quick filters and nearby activity

Surface what matters now

Relevant play and activity instead of another search list.

Functional prototype weekly calendar showing open play and possible matches within the player's availability

Make availability useful

See play around when someone can actually play.

Functional prototype notifications for an open spot, a weather alert with an indoor alternative, and an invitation

Design for change

Openings, cancellations and weather become actionable.

Functional prototype court screen showing weather, wind, best play window and current court activity

Add real-world context

Conditions and activity help answer whether it is worth going.

AI

Use AI to reduce work, not add another layer.

In my process

AI accelerated research synthesis, competitive analysis, edge-case exploration, product alternatives and the move from Figma toward a functional build.

In the product

AI is most useful where intent is fuzzy: understand what someone wants, make the interpretation visible and editable, then help surface relevant options.

AI handles ambiguity. Rules handle certainty. People confirm commitments.

04 · Test + Build

Move from concepts to real behavior.

About 15 formative reviews informed the current structure. I’m now moving into Lovable so complete flows can be tested against a functioning experience.

A player showing another player a map of nearby games on a phone at the courts
Testing where players expect to find games

~15 formative reviews

Comprehension, findability and early interaction feedback informed the current structure.

Next

Task-based flow testing · real data and integrations · AI interaction testing · final UI refinement

  • Researched
  • Designed
  • Evaluated
  • Building
  • Not launched
A player reviewing an availability screen on a phone beside the court
Testing availability expectations
Three players looking at a phone together at a courtside table
Reviewing flows with players

Illustrative testing context. Research findings and participant counts are based on actual interviews, survey responses and formative reviews.

What this work demonstrates

Finding the problem behind the interface.

The visible screens weren’t the whole problem. The larger friction lived between people, systems and changing information. My work was to identify that underlying problem, gather enough evidence to make decisions, and turn it into a direction worth testing before deeper investment.

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