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Airhub
Designing Airhub: The first end-to-end social platform for airsoft enthusiasts
Casestudy, Social Networking
Client
LabLamb Works Limited
The Challenge
Airsoft is a fast-growing sport, but its digital ecosystem is fragmented. Players rely on Facebook groups, generic marketplaces, or word-of-mouth to buy gear, plan events, and connect. This creates trust issues, scattered communities, and missed growth opportunities.
The client set out to solve this by creating a platform that:
The client set out to solve this by creating a platform that:
- Unifies the airsoft experience - combining commerce, news, forums, and local discovery in one place.
- Builds trust - safe peer-to-peer payments, verified profiles, and strong community standards.
- Support global growth - a design ready to expand across international airsoft communities
My role was to design a product experience that delivered on these goals while staying authentic to the airsoft culture. This case study is a peek into what my UX design process was like, the challenges I addressed, and the key takeaways gained from this endeavor.
What is Airhub?
Airhub is the first social platform designed specifically for the global airsoft community. It brings players together in ways no other tool has.
With Airhub, players can:
With Airhub, players can:
- Follow the latest airsoft news.
- Buy and sell gear through a trusted marketplace.
- Join forums to share strategies and epereinces.
- Find local arenas, shops, and groups.
Unlike generic social or e-commerce platforms, Airhub is tailored to this niche. It pioneers digital design in a space where no full solution existed before.
My role
Carl Emefo — Product designer 🎨
UX Design, Visual Design, Research, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Design System
Tools used
Figma, Google Forms, Mobbin, Jamboard, Gitlab
Team
Meet Patel — Lead engineer ⛑️
Devesh Maurya — Engineer
Duration
Development ongoing
Built a design system that cut dev time by 20% and improved design consistency.
Simplified design handoff, boosting team productivity.
Anchored design choices in user and business insights, ensuring adoption readiness.
Get the Airhub app
The app I designed is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Use any of the links below to download it.
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Create a trusted marketplace for gear, prioritizing user safety and authenticity.
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Design with scalability in mind to enable global expansion.
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Build a platform that fosters community engagement and retention.
The design process was rooted in research and hypothesis validation. Key steps included:
- Market and user research - identifying how players currently buy gear, organize events, and connect.
- Bi-weekly product reviews - aligning with engineers on feasibility, progress, and roadmap.
- Iterative design cycles - testing and refining based on feedback to balance user needs with business goals.
This structured collaboration ensured the platform was both user-driven and strategically positioned for growth.
Understanding users’ need
Through extensive market research and close collaboration with the product owner, I gathered valuable user and business insights that shaped every design decision.
Our target
1
Enthusiasts and Hobbyists
People passionate about military simulation and tactical gameplay.
People passionate about military simulation and tactical gameplay.
2
Military and Law Enforcement Professionals
Many active-duty military and law enforcement personnel using airsoft for tactical training.
Many active-duty military and law enforcement personnel using airsoft for tactical training.
3
Recreational Players
Individuals who casually play and families.
Individuals who casually play and families.
4
Competitive Players
Teams competing in organized tournaments.
Teams competing in organized tournaments.
The problem
- No single source for events, shops, or gear.
- Hard to verify trust when buying or selling equipment.
- Event planning and organiztion was slow and manual due to lack of dedicated platforms.
- Few safe spaces for sharing experiences without bias.
Market Position & Competitor Context
Alternative tools (Facebook Groups, Discord, scattered buy/sell sites) were not tailored for the unique needs of airsoft players, resulting in fragmented experiences and low trust. Airhub’s niche positioning as the only all-in-one airsoft platform differentiated it from broader social and commerce apps.
Questions we had to face
To create a balance between business and user needs, our design solution aims to solve for these questions:
- How can we deliver relevant, personalized airsoft information?Curated news feed with filters (‘Top Headlines,’ ‘For You,’ ‘Local’).
- How can we foster interaction and community growth?Interactive, user-moderated forums and local directories for arenas, shops, and groups
- How do we create a trusted marketplace tailored to different play styles?Tags, advanced filters, auto-price reduction, seller insights, and verified profiles
- How do we ensure safe and seamless peer-to-peer payments?Transparent in-app messaging, reporting tools, and chat logs for every transaction.
The Solution: Laying the foundation for a seamless user experience
Creating a design system that enables consistency at scale.
To ensure long-term consistency and efficiency, I created the Airhub modular Design System to ensure:
- A modular component library adaptable to new features.
- Color and typography guidelines aligned to brand values.
- Consistency across light and dark themes.
- Faster development with reusable components., reducing design-to-dev friction and enabling faster iteration.
This improved developer efficiency and kept the brand coherent as the platform grew.
Color Guidance
Some icons created by me
Components Overview
A Unified Visual Language
Typography
Color Palette — Light (Top) & Dark (Bottom)
Designing the homepage while ensuring visual appeal
- Designed a dynamic, customizable news feed tailored to airsoft players.
- Enabled personalization through location selectors and category filters.
- Delivered bold visuals and concise headlines for easy scanning.
Anatomy of the Homepage
Building Interaction & Airsoft Community Engagement with Forum Conversations
- Built an accessible forum module with intuitive navigation.
- Features like long-press chat actions and recently visited forums simplified participation.
Forums
Forum Chat Room
Create Forum, Recently Visited Forums
Long-press Chat Bottom Sheet
Inside the redesigned Airhub marketplace - Buy, sell, & gear up like a pro
- Designed a seamless P2P model with no added fees, keeping trust central.
- Introduced keyword subscriptions and seller tools, including features like auto-bump and price insights to keep listings active and competitive.
- Prioritized transparency and usability with robust search and buyer protections.
Marketplace v1, Marketplace v1.1
Anatomy of the Marketplace
Verification Prompt for first-time Sellers, Create Listing
Price Trend - Sellers (Premium)
Advanced Options - Sellers (Premium)
Marketplace Search - Phrase Input
Marketplace Search - Results
Item Detail - Buyer
Features to help you Build Connections in the Airsoft Community, with Image feeds, Local Shops, Nearby Arenas & Groups
Our goal was to make it easy for airsoft enthusiasts to build meaningful connections and expand their communities.
- Designed feeds for sharing images and loadouts.
- Integrated discovery of local shops, arenas, and groups to strengthen offline connections.
Image Feed, Image Detail, Nearby Arenas, Arena Detail
Local Shops, Shop Detail, Nearby Groups, Group Detail
Why isn’t Airhub available to all users yet?
With a team of three, global rollout required careful pacing. We chose a measured rollout strategy to:
- Gather user feedback in closed alpha.
- Stress-test infrastructure and moderation systems.
- Build anticipation within airsoft communities.
This reduced risk and positioned Airhub for long-term adoption.
Impact & Learnings
Impact so far:
- Achieved a 20% increase in dev cycles thanks to design system.
- Early alpha generated strong community interest and sign-ups.
- Early user feedback validated demand, with sign-ups exceeding projections in target regions.
- Established the foundation for a trusted, self-moderating community via guidelines and tools, supporting safe growth at scale.
Key Learnings
- Spent two months on initial user research and interviews, which shaped the foundation of Airhub.
- Balanced multiple roles — researcher, designer, and collaborator with engineers — to move the product forward.
- Learned that designing for a niche requires adaptability and wearing many hats.
- Saw how ruthless prioritization of milestones kept the team focused.
- Understood that trust and safety features are as critical to adoption as usability.
Next Steps
As we move from closed alpha to public beta, my focus is on:
- Clear community guidelines and strong moderation.
- Continuous user feedback to refine features.
- Infrastructure updates to support global growth.
This structured approach prepares Airhub to grow responsibly, while supporting a vibrant, safe, and engaged community, worldwide.