Aceable | Drivers Ed UX

The Challenge

Aceable had built a successful mobile-first drivers education platform, but we realized we were optimizing individual touchpoints without truly understanding the complete journey. Getting a driver's license in Texas isn't just about completing an online course—it's a months-long process involving parents, DMV visits, driving practice, and multiple tests.

We needed to map this entire journey to identify where Aceable could create meaningful value beyond our existing course offering.

My Role

UX Researcher & Designer · Led end-to-end research initiative to map the complete driver's license journey for Texas teenagers, identifying touchpoints, pain points, and opportunities for product expansion.

Research Approach

Defining Research Objectives

We framed the research around two core questions:

What are students and their parents doing, feeling, and experiencing at each phase of getting a license?
Where can Aceable meaningfully enhance this experience and provide additional value?

The emphasis on "meaningfully" was intentional. We weren't looking for superficial feature additions—we wanted to identify genuine pain points where intervention would matter.

Journey Mapping Methodology

I conducted in-depth interviews with three distinct user groups:

Students currently in the process who could speak to immediate frustrations and needs with fresh perspective.

Parents of current students who often drove (literally and figuratively) the process and made purchasing decisions.

Recent completers who could reflect on the full journey with hindsight.

From these interviews, I constructed a comprehensive journey map spanning from initial awareness ("I'm old enough to drive") through license acquisition and beyond.

Key Findings

The research revealed significant opportunity gaps:

Pre-course phase: Parents struggled to understand Texas requirements and timelines. The information existed but was scattered across government websites and difficult to parse.

During course: Students and parents had little visibility into progress or what came next after course completion.

Post-course: The transition from course completion to DMV testing was a black box. Users didn't know how to schedule tests, what documents to bring, or how to prepare.

Driving practice: Parents felt unprepared to teach driving effectively and wanted guidance on progressive skill building.

Mapping Touchpoint Opportunities

I documented each user action along the journey and identified specific touchpoints where Aceable could add value—from pre-course planning tools to post-course DMV preparation and parent coaching resources.

Outcome

This research directly informed Aceable's product roadmap, leading to new features including a requirements checklist, DMV appointment scheduling integration, and parent resources for supervised driving practice. The holistic view of the customer journey shifted our strategy from "drivers ed course provider" to "license acquisition partner."