The Mesa Tennis & Pickleball Center offers many activities for every age and ability range. With a clunky public site and strict limits on virtual outreach, our facility needed a single reference to give new patrons information on each offering and details of our schedules for returning customers.
City of Mesa's Tennis Center
Print Product Designer
1.5 years, ongoing
One of the biggest differences between working for a city and working in the private sector is the amount of bureaucracy involved.
This was a difficult adjustment for me, especially when I could see how small changes could improve both employee workflow and the customer experience.
Despite these constraints, I was lucky to have a boss who:
✔ Constantly pushed for improvements, even when met with resistance
✔ Had years of experience seeing how outdated systems made work harder
✔ Supported ideas that would create a better experience for staff and the public
Through her, I was introduced to the challenge of getting a much-needed resource approved: a cohesive activity guide.
At the time, the city was scaling back its online activity listings, making it even harder for the public to find information. I suggested a printable handout—a simple guide listing all tennis-related activities in one place.
The idea was dismissed outright, despite our explanation of how it could help both staff and the public.
Rather than drop it, my boss regrouped for the next meeting:
✔ She brought in another manager for support
✔ They presented the current printed handout (used by staff and customers)
✔ They pointed out its flaws, including: Inconsistent formatting, Disorganized information, Lack of key details (pricing, registration links, class descriptions)
Over time, the handout had been modified so much that it was no longer an effective resource.
At that point, the public had two main ways to find activities:
Neither option was ideal, and we knew there had to be a better way
After several Teams meetings and negotiations, we finally got a cautious go-ahead: we could create a draft to present, but it had to be completed within the week.
That meant an incredibly tight turnaround, especially considering I only had two shifts that week and a full plate of other responsibilities. Thankfully, the secondary manager stepped in to collaborate, working with me outside of my scheduled hours to ensure we met the deadline.
Since I was still relatively new—only three months into the job—I relied on her institutional knowledge to navigate the city’s registration system. Every class, event, and league operated on an outdated structure that assigned a six-digit activity number to each program, making organization more complex than expected. While I had experience in design and marketing, I wasn’t a tennis expert, so she also helped refine class descriptions and ensure we included all necessary details, from pricing to skill levels to tournament schedules.
With the little time we had, we worked efficiently to consolidate information into a rough but functional prototype. The guide included:
It was a major improvement over the previous system, and we were hopeful that leadership would recognize its value.
We completed the draft just in time, and to my surprise, the higher-ups were more receptive than expected. They even remarked that the quality exceeded their expectations and approved it for use—pending a final review from marketing.
I focused on cultivating a design that professionally represented both the City of Mesa and the tennis center, ensuring it was engaging, visually appealing, and easy to navigate. I applied principles of information hierarchy, layout organization, and typographic clarity to structure the content effectively.
To create a clear and user-friendly guide, I prioritized:
Each of these choices was made with the user experience in mind—staff needed a quick reference tool, and customers needed an intuitive, approachable way to explore their options.
When we presented the draft, my boss loved it. Finally, there was a clear, well-organized resource that staff could use and customers could easily navigate. But while she was my biggest supporter throughout the project, she also had a maximalist approach to design—she wanted to include everything.
Her excitement was great, but it also meant that every time we refined the guide, she wanted to add more. More details, more sections, more QR codes, more supplemental information. While all of these additions were well-intentioned, they risked making the guide overwhelming and cluttered instead of clear and streamlined.
At the same time, we were also dealing with marketing’s approval process.
Since the marketing team wasn’t familiar with tennis or sports programming, their feedback was often redundant or missed the mark. Some of their revisions were helpful, but others just slowed down the process at a time when we couldn’t afford delays.
Meanwhile, we were racing against the clock. If the guide wasn’t finalized soon, we would miss the print window for the upcoming season. The back-and-forth process of revising, resubmitting, and waiting for feedback felt endless, but we kept pushing forward.
After multiple rounds of revisions and negotiations, we finally received full approval. The guide was officially a go.
The first edition of the Tennis Activity Guide was printed and distributed, and the response was immediate:
Even better? The city saw the value of the guide and approved it as a recurring, seasonal resource moving forward.
With the first edition complete, we took a step back to evaluate what worked and what needed improvement. The biggest takeaways:
With these refinements in mind, we moved forward with the next edition, ensuring each version was better than the last.
UXMeagan@gmail.com
+1 480-712-1572