Full-Stack Web App · Community Platform · 2025
Nebula Padel
Nebula Padel started as a simple idea between friends, get people playing padel every week in London. It grew into something much bigger. What the community needed wasn't just a website, it was an entire digital infrastructure: a way for players to sign up, join events, manage their profiles, and feel like they belonged to something. On the operations side, the club needed a system to manage bookings, track members, communicate with players, and run the whole thing without drowning in spreadsheets and WhatsApp messages. I designed, built, and shipped the entire platform — both sides — from scratch.
Two Apps, One Ecosystem
I built Nebula as two separate applications that share a single database, a player-facing platform and a full admin panel. The player side handles registration, authentication, event sign-ups, profiles, and community features. The admin side gives the club complete operational control: member management, booking oversight, event creation, and direct communication with players through automated emails. Both apps were built independently so they can scale, deploy, and evolve without affecting each other; the kind of architecture you'd find at a funded startup, not a community padel club.
Making It Feel Like More Than a Booking System
Most sports platforms feel transactional; you book a slot, you play, you leave. I wanted Nebula to feel like a community you belong to. Players create profiles with their skill level, track their match history, and build an identity within the club. The sign-up flow is designed to feel welcoming rather than administrative. A multi-step onboarding that gets you playing fast without overwhelming you with forms. Every design decision was made to lower the barrier to entry for someone who's never played padel before.
The Lanyard — A Signature Detail
Every event gets its own interactive 3D lanyard that players can view in the browser. Built with WebGL, real-time physics simulation, and custom rendering. You can grab it, swing it, watch it respond. It's completely unnecessary from a functional standpoint, and that's the point. It's the kind of detail that makes people screenshot it, share it, talk about it. It turns a digital event pass into something people actually want to show off. Design should make people feel something, even in a sports app.
Bulletproof Auth & Security
The platform runs a full authentication system with multiple sign-in methods, email verification, secure password resets, and role-based access control. Players, captains, staff, and admins all see different things based on their permissions. Every token is generated and validated server-side. User data is protected at every layer. This isn't a hobby project with a login form, it's production-grade infrastructure built to handle real users and real data from day one.
Outcome
Nebula Padel launched to 200+ registered users and grew to 400+ followers on Instagram. The platform replaced every manual process the club was running. No more spreadsheets, no more group chat chaos, no more lost payments. But more than the numbers, Nebula proved something I believe deeply: that a community platform should feel as considered and crafted as any consumer product. Every interaction, from the 3D lanyard to the welcome email, was designed to make people feel like they'd joined something worth being part of.