In my spare time, I’ve been building Pedal – an app designed to help driving instructors manage their day-to-day. From lesson scheduling to student progress tracking and financial reporting, Pedal is about giving instructors a clean, modern alternative to messy spreadsheets and outdated tools.
This isn’t just a passion project, it’s a problem-solving outlet. Pedal lets me apply the same design thinking I use at work, but with full ownership across product, brand, UX, and strategy.
Contribution
Product design
Brand strategy
Product strategy
User research
User testing
Sales and business
Team
1x Product Designer
1x Engineer
Company
Pedal
Process
Identifying the gaps
UK driving instructors were juggling outdated tools: paper notes, WhatsApp chats, Google Calendar, and spreadsheets. I interviewed instructors across the country and uncovered four key pain points:
Disjointed workflows made scheduling and planning inefficient
No visibility into learner progress
Poor insights led to missed revenue
Existing tools felt clunky, cluttered, and uninspired
Instructors needed software that felt modern, mobile-first, and fit seamlessly into their fast-paced routines.
Designing a better way
I led the end-to-end design of Pedal – wearing the hats of researcher, strategist, and product designer. My process included:
User interviews to map real-world workflows and frustrations
Competitor analysis of Total Drive, MyDriveTime, and GoRoadie
Feature scoping to define an achievable, high-impact MVP
UI design rooted in calm, focused visuals and mobile-first use
Brand creation to reflect simplicity, trust, and care
All design and prototyping was done in Figma, allowing for smooth iteration and live demos during early testing.
Shaping the MVP
Pedal’s first release focused on core functionality that delivered immediate value:
Smart scheduling with lesson history and conflict detection
Learner profiles with progress tracking
A financial dashboard to help instructors track income and expenses
A clean, fast interface built for mobile from day one
Outcome
Pedal is now in active development with a working prototype.
We’ve already run 1:1 demos with instructors, gathered actionable feedback, and started refining the next iteration.
More than just a tool, Pedal is a bet on better workflows and better design in an overlooked industry. Whether it scales big or stays niche, the mission stays the same:
build something instructors genuinely love to use.