From paper to pixels: Making badminton digital

About Badminton Vlaanderen & Badman

Badminton Vlaanderen is the official sports federation for badminton in Flanders. They support thousands of players, clubs, and competitions across the region. To help manage matches, team formations, schedules, and results, the federation developed Badman, a digital app that centralizes everything related to player encounters.

With Badman, players can:

• Fill in team formations for every match
• Propose or confirm new match dates
• Record results live during play

What used to be handled on paper, with slow and manual processing afterwards is now fully digital and automated. This shift has been a huge leap forward in innovation and digitalization for the federation.

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Problem

While Badman already existed, the user experience was outdated and frustrating.

• The front end design wasn’t UX friendly, making it difficult for players to navigate.
• The technical implementation was unstable, with bugs and reliability issues.
• Adoption was at risk: players and clubs found it hard to use consistently.

The federation needed a modernized version that retained the reliable back end but offered a stable, intuitive, and user-friendly front end.

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Solution

We approached the redesign in two tracks:

1. User-Centered Design
   • Ran multiple design sprints and user testing sessions with players.
   • Identified pain points and restructured flows to match how players actually prepare and play.
   • Created a modern, accessible design system to ensure consistency.
2. Modern Front End Development
   • Rebuilt the front end in React (Next.js + TypeScript) for speed, scalability, and reliability.
   • Optimized the app for stability to eliminate the bugs and crashes of the old version.
   • Kept the existing back end intact to minimize migration risks.

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Outcome

• User-Friendly Experience: Players can now easily fill in team formations, update match dates, and record results without confusion.
• Stability & Reliability: The new front end is significantly more robust, removing the frustrations of the old unstable version.
• Higher Adoption: With an interface designed and tested with players, engagement and satisfaction have improved across clubs.
• Innovation for the Federation: Badman has become a prime example of how sports federations can digitalize processes, cutting manual work and providing instant results.