Designing Befreed’s AI-powered book digest & discovery experience
Befreed, UX Designer Summer 2025
Overview
Who is Befreed?
Befreed is an AI-powered tool that summarizes books into bite-sized content, helping users digest knowledge more efficiently.
What’s the Problem?
The current design didn’t effectively support users in digesting knowledge. Additionally, as Befreed is still in its early stages, it has yet to establish a strong user base.
What’s the Result?
We explored potential target audiences, identified key pain points, and translated those insights into a new book product detail page (PDP) experience, an AI-powered learning tool, and a mind map feature. These updates successfully improved the overall design and user experience.
"User want more content, more engaging format. Knowledge is not engaging, and hard to consume."
——— Jisong, founder of Befreed
Discover
We want to understand users, but the user pool isn't clearly defined yet
Ambiguity 1:
Define our users
Befreed is in its early stages and has yet to establish a strong user base. Befreed is still in its early stages and hasn’t built a strong user base yet. Instead of jumping straight into design, we need to first understand who we’re designing for. Right now, it’s unclear whether our main users are students, busy professionals, casual readers, or lifelong learners. Without solving this, we risk building a product that doesn’t meet real needs.
Amazon's working backward method
To resolve this ambiguity, we use Amazon’s Working Backwards method — starting with the end experience in mind. This includes writing a press release as if Befreed is already launched and beloved, followed by ideating potential user personas.
Press Release
Personas
Discover
We spoke with people who wanted to read more and uncovered three key insights
Clustered Key User Insights
we collect all the user insight(raw data) and cluster them into themes
Key Insight 1
People prefer having the option to dive deeper into content
Key Insight 2
People want a more tailored experience
Key Insight 3
Users trust peer feedback, they’re looking for reviews and suggestions
Define
How might AI effectively summarize, curate, and present information in ways that save time while ensuring depth and quality of learning?
Ambiguity 2:
How to convert research findings to the actionable design concepts?
We have a lot of findings, insights…but how to translate them into actual design solutions?
I translate research Insights into a clear, focused Problem Statement that reflects both user pain points and business needs. When crafting Solutions, I carefully consider constraints like tight timelines and limited developer resources—prioritizing ideas that offer the highest impact with the lowest complexity. During Design Estimation, I break down the scope into feasible tasks, collaborating closely with developers to align on effort, dependencies, and delivery speed.
Ambiguity 3:
How to navigate from many ideas to one aligned direction?
There are multiple viable paths forward. However, we can’t pursue them all. To move strategically, we need to consider constraints like time, scope, technical feasibility, and business goals to determine the most effective direction.
Prototype here
Define
I learn how to prioritize
MoSCoW & Impact-Effort Matrix
Define
Design Directions
In-depth Reading
Hyper Link Terms
Key Concept
AI Chat Bot
Resourceful PDP
Book Digest
Content Break Down
AI-Curated Recommendations
Fun & Intuitive Journey
Gamified Book Explore Experience
Clustered Book Universe
AI-Optimized "Quick Glance"
Ambiguity 4:
How to manage the stakeholder review as a designer?
We worked so hard and we have different design variants.. but we only have 30 mins for stakeholder review, how to share the outcome efficiently?
Consolidate & Measurement
Consolidate overlapping ideas into a unified, scalable design with a clear production tagline to align stakeholders on the product vision.
Design Note & QA
Use notes to help newcomers understand the screens. Keep it concise to leave time for Q&A and ensure clear alignment before moving forward.
Next Step Alignment
Summarize key alignment points and share next steps with stakeholders to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
Design
Finally.. We nailed it
Book Product Detail Page
Adding more content to increase the depth of the book itself and explore other related or similar books
Swipe AI & Key Concept
Allows users to learn more about key words and concepts in a more accessible way
Mind Map
The Mind Map allows users to discover new books freely and in a playful manner
Testimonials
“I had the pleasure of mentoring and working with Rachel during our design cohort, and she truly stood out as a talented and reliable designer. She has a great eye for visual design and consistently brought strong creative thinking to the table. What impressed me most was her leadership — she took initiative, kept her team on track, and always approached challenges with curiosity and a positive attitude. From start to finish, Rachel was all-in, and it showed in the quality of her work and her impact on the team.”
Jacky Cheung
@UXGO Coach
Retrospective
How to solve the ambiguity?
Working within an established design system challenged me to consolidate diverse content needs into a single, standardized format—without sacrificing flexibility. By developing a modular framework and clear content rules, we unified the shopping experience across products while allowing room for tailored merchandising. Early collaboration with UX and product teams was key to defining what must stay consistent versus where creativity could thrive.
