Aceable | Real Estate Professional Education
Licensing and continuing education platform for real estate professionals
The Challenge
Aceable had proven its mobile-first education model with drivers ed. Now we were entering a completely different market: real estate professional licensing and continuing education. The stakes were dramatically higher—these customers were investing in their professional futures, spending significantly more money, and expecting a product that matched the seriousness of their career ambitions.
I was tasked with designing and directing the complete edu-commerce experience for AceableAgent, Aceable's entry into real estate professional education. This wasn't a feature addition—it was a new product serving a new market with entirely different needs.
My Role
Senior UX Designer · Led research, strategy, and end-to-end design for AceableAgent's course catalog and purchase experience. Collaborated closely with product, engineering, marketing, and instructional design teams throughout the product development and launch.
Design Process
Research Strategy
Unlike drivers ed students (teenagers making a one-time purchase), real estate professionals have ongoing education needs throughout their careers. To understand this market, I organized three focus group sessions with carefully recruited participants:
- Agents and brokers with decade-plus careers
- Professionals in their first years
- People currently pursuing licensure
- Brokerage firm owners managing multiple agents
- Individuals interested but not yet committed
I involved the product, engineering, marketing, and instructional design teams in framing interview questions, observing sessions, and reviewing findings. This cross-functional involvement ensured insights translated directly into product decisions.
Key Research Findings
Renewal procrastination is universal: Most agents don't think about license renewal until 1-2 weeks before expiration, creating intense time pressure and anxiety.
Experienced agents seek growth: Those with 10+ years were particularly interested in elective courses that could strengthen weak areas—social media marketing, video production, new technologies.
Requirement confusion is real: Finding which courses fulfill which requirements is genuinely difficult. State requirements vary and change; course catalogs don't always map clearly.
Price and convenience win: Among comparable options, ease of completion was the deciding factor—busy agents need to fit education into fragmented schedules.
Information Architecture
I led a user story mapping session with the cross-functional team, translating research insights into concrete product requirements. This collaborative process built shared understanding and buy-in across teams.
The resulting architecture centered on three user jobs:
- Find the right courses (for my state, my license type, my requirements)
- Purchase with confidence (clear pricing, bundle options, guarantee)
- Complete on my schedule (mobile-friendly, save progress, quick sessions)
Wireframing & Prototyping
Working alongside engineering, I broke each experience into modular components. This early engineering involvement was crucial—it allowed us to identify technical constraints and opportunities before committing to designs.
I conducted task analysis and prototype testing with real estate agents, iterating rapidly on the course catalog navigation, course detail pages, and checkout flow.
Visual Design System
The visual design needed to convey professionalism and credibility while remaining approachable. I developed a design system that could scale across the catalog—from individual course pages to bundle offerings to the checkout experience.
Particular attention went to the course catalog components, which needed to clearly communicate course details, requirements fulfilled, format, and pricing in a scannable format.
Outcome
AceableAgent launched successfully, establishing Aceable in the real estate education market. The research-driven approach ensured we built for actual user needs rather than assumptions, and the collaborative process created alignment that accelerated development.
The platform has since grown to become one of the leading online real estate schools, serving tens of thousands of aspiring and practicing agents across multiple states.
