Sparrk: Simplifying Sports Facility Bookings for Diverse User Needs
SWR Tech developed a digital platform designed to streamline the management of sports rental facilities in Daet, Camarines Norte. The platform offers tools for efficient booking management and enhanced online client interaction, with the goal of simplifying the rental process and promoting local sports facilities.
About Sparrk
Sparrk is an innovative platform designed to streamline the process of renting sports facilities. By offering a centralized solution for managing bookings, payments, and customer interactions, Sparrk simplifies the booking process and reduces no-shows. Additionally, Sparrk helps prevent double bookings, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free experience for both facility owners and users.
The stakeholders were seeking a centralized platform that could streamline the entire booking process, including payments and customer interactions. Key features considered essential included real-time availability tracking to prevent double bookings, automated payment systems to reduce no-shows, and timely notifications to keep both users and facility owners informed.
Sparrk MVP Features
- Facility owners prefer a booking system that streamlines reservations and reduces manual scheduling, providing users with an easy way to book time slots.
- Facility owners prefer an automated payment system that allows users to pay online at booking, reducing cancellations and no-shows by confirming payment upfront.
- Facility owners prefer a real-time availability tracker with automated notifications to prevent double bookings and keep users informed, helping users make timely and informed booking decisions.
- Facility owners prefer a dashboard that summarizes all operations, enabling them to easily manage their day-to-day operations.
DISCOVERY
Sports facility owners were facing challenges with manual systems, which often resulted in inefficiencies and lost bookings. Meanwhile, users expressed frustration with the cumbersome booking process. Research studies confirmed the need for a more user-friendly solution that offered real-time availability, automated booking, and seamless payment options. Recognizing this market gap, Sparrk was developed as a comprehensive platform designed to streamline operations for facility owners and enhance the overall user experience.
User Journey Highlights
New users begin by creating an account with options for standard login or social media integration. They can browse and book available spaces with ease, while facility owners list and manage their spaces efficiently. Additionally, users can manage their profiles, update personal information, review bookings, and handle payments seamlessly.
UI and UX Design
The team focused on creating a visually appealing and user-friendly design for Sparrk. Blue was chosen as the primary color to evoke trust and reliability, while light elements were incorporated to improve usability. Black accents and ample white space were used to maintain a clean, modern interface that enhances readability and draws attention to key features.
Sparrk for Guests
Guests, including athletes and casual players, can easily browse and book sports facilities through an intuitive dashboard. They can view spaces in either list or map view, apply filters, and access detailed facility information with real-time availability and integrated payments for a seamless booking experience.
Additionally, guests can manage their profiles, bookings, and payment methods efficiently, ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience.
Here are the key points that enhances the user's experience:
- Guest users can check real-time availability for all listed facilities, ensuring they can find and book the perfect time slot that fits their schedule.
- Guest users can explore spaces using both list and map views, making it easy to compare facilities based on proximity, availability, and amenities.
- Guest users can secure their reservations instantly with Sparrk's integrated payment system hassle-free.
- Guest users benefit from Sparrk's secure and reliable payment processing, allowing them to pay online with confidence.
- Guest users receive real-time notifications for booking confirmations, cancellations, and refunds.
- Guest users can access Sparrk’s platform from mobile device, providing them with flexibility and convenience on the go.
Sparrk for Hosts
Hosts can efficiently manage their spaces, bookings, and customer interactions through a user-friendly interface designed for streamlined operations. They can update facility details, track availability, and automate bookings and payments, reducing the need for manual tasks. The platform enables hosts to optimize their operations, minimize effort, and concentrate on enhancing the overall experience for their customers.
Here are the key points that enhances the user's experience:
- Host users can easily list and manage their sports facilities, updating availability, pricing, and amenities in real-time, reducing the risk of double bookings or scheduling conflicts.
- Hosts benefit from an integrated booking system that reduces cancellations and no-shows by offering real-time availability and secure payment processing at the time of booking.
- Hosts can track payments seamlessly within the app, keeping their finances organized and transparent, with clear refund and cancellation policies enforced automatically.
- Hosts receive real-time notifications for reservations, cancellations, and payment confirmations, while using an intuitive dashboard to manage spaces, bookings, and guest interactions efficiently.
Migration From Native to Solito
Sparrk was initially developed using React Native, a popular framework for building cross-platform mobile applications. This allowed the development team to create features for both iOS and Android using a shared codebase, speeding up development. However, as the platform expanded, the need for greater flexibility and web-based functionality became clear.
Mid-development, the team strategically migrated from React Native to Solito, a framework that enables code sharing between React Native and Next.js for both mobile and web development. This migration improved the platform's consistency across devices and simplified codebase maintenance.
As a result, Sparrk's mobile app and web presence were optimized, providing hosts and guests with a more cohesive, streamlined experience.
Challenges
One of the challenges Sparrk encountered arose after receiving feedback from sports facilities with convertible courts—spaces that could be used for multiple sports, such as basketball, volleyball, or other activities. Initially, the platform allowed facility owners to list only one category per facility, which proved to be a limitation for multi-use spaces. Facility owners required a more flexible system to define availability for each sport individually without affecting bookings for other activities using the same space.
To address this, Sparrk introduced the concept of "space variants," allowing owners to configure different setups for the same physical space under a "parent space" level. This ensures that each variant, such as a basketball or volleyball configuration, has its own availability while remaining part of the same overall facility.
Future Steps
While still in active development, Sparrk has made significant strides in addressing key challenges and building a platform that streamlines sports facility management for both hosts and guests. The development team has successfully tackled complex issues, such as managing convertible courts and refining the user experience for facility bookings, laying a solid foundation for future growth.
As feedback from users and facility owners continues to be gathered, the focus remains on enhancing the platform’s features, improving usability, and refining the user interface to ensure a seamless experience. These ongoing efforts will help ensure Sparrk continues to evolve and meet the needs of its users.
