BeFreed.AI - cohort 19

Befreed.ai is an AI-powered knowledge platform that transforms long-form content—like books, podcasts, and videos—into actionable, personalized insights. Leveraging AI to make deep learning more engaging and efficient, Befreed helps users explore complex ideas through interactive summaries, smart conversations, and custom learning journeys.

Our team enhanced the BeFreed platform by designing and implementing two new features, along with refining the Transit page and PDP to improve usability and engagement. Through in-depth user research, ideation, prototyping, and cross-functional collaboration, we developed intuitive solutions that streamline the user experience and provide valuable insights for our founders.

Meet our team “SICCK” a name that reflects both our diverse nationalities. We’re a global team from 5 countries, crushing it across time zones

Starting from zero, we pushed forward—uncovering problems, aligning with our client, and turning insights into strategic designs that drove real business impact

We focused on crafting an engaging reading experience for BeFreed, leveraging their AI-powered content while introducing a North Star vision. Mapping out how BeFreed could evolve and scale over the next five years.

Why we're excited

AI-Powered Learning: Crafting Engaging & Intuitive Book Experiences:
Working on BeFreed was a powerful reminder of why we love design, solving real problems with intuitive, AI-driven solutions. The challenge was clear: readers and learners often struggle to absorb dense books efficiently, losing valuable insights in the process. We set out to change that.Our goal was to bring clarity and structure to the platform, making it more intuitive for users to engage with. Through deep user research, iterative prototyping, and cross-team collaboration, we built two new features (mind map, swipe card) and improved the Transit page and PDP (Product Detail Page) to enhance usability and engagement. We focused on refining the user journey—ensuring that from the moment someone landed on the platform, they understood exactly how BeFreed could help them.What made it even more exciting? Since BeFreed was in its early startup stage, we had the unique opportunity to shape its direction. Every week, we saw the platform evolve, implementing changes, testing improvements, and refining the experience. Helping transform a promising but ambiguous product into something clearer and more impactful in just 10 weeks was an incredibly rewarding experience.

The how

THE BEGINNING | Our first 3 weeks

Defining UX and Scoping the Idea for BeFreed AI: In the first three weeks, our focus is on addressing a critical challenge faced by our clients: their knowledge content is neither engaging nor effectively consumed, yet they lack a clear strategy to solve this problem. Our role is to identify the root issues and develop actionable solutions. Through thorough UX audits and persona development, we establish a clear design estimation, presenting clients with multiple viable solutions. We highlight which options offer the greatest benefits and propose a "north star" plan to guide long-term success. This approach ensures we not only define the project scope effectively but also align with our client’s business goals—moving beyond just design outcomes to deliver measurable impact on key metrics.

ideate, constrain, & test

Iterative Ideation: Shaping BeFreed’s Engaging Content Experience: Upon aligning with Befreed on our North Star vision for the project focused on translating early insights into tangible product concepts. We began by brainstorming multiple directions based on user needs, pain points, and behaviors around consuming long-form content. These ideas were visualized through low-fidelity sketches, flows, and storyboards, which we used to spark early conversations and gather quick feedback. We went through many steps of ideation and kept refining our concepts based on continuous user feedback, ensuring each iteration brought us closer to a solution that felt intuitive, engaging, and genuinely useful.

innovate, spec, & ship

Polishing & Innovating: Finalizing BeFreed’s AI-Powered Experience: In the final weeks, we’ll refine the core experience and push for innovation in how users interact with AI-powered knowledge. We’ll finalize specs, build high-fidelity prototypes, and polish the UI for clarity and delight. The project will culminate in a fully interactive prototype and handoff-ready documentation—designed to be both showcase-worthy and ready to build.

The what - impact & shipped

A Smart AI tool with just only a swipe to get the knowledge in seconds

What is the future of AI native interface and how do we bridge the gap?

• Designing workspaces that morph based on context vs static documents

• Canvas adapts in real-time to your workflow - not just another doc editor

• Content self-organizes based on relationships vs manual folder structures

• Information flows between blocks naturally, like liquid vs rigid containers

• Elements reshape and connect based on AI understanding of your work

• Built for flow state - content appears where needed, then vanishes

A smoother onboarding reading experience to motivate user to read anytime, anywhere

A AI-optimized mind map that inspires users to explore the book content freely

A digestible in depth book discover experience powered by AI

Some of our team memories

Shipped amazing work with our super dedicated seasoned coaches from Gemini and Alexa AI, while reviewing products with founders backed by Afore and early Google investors.

Helped the team complete Demo Day at Afore, supporting their journey from initial incubation funding to securing their next round of investment.

Helped the startup and founding team rapidly pivot beyond individual consumer use cases, delivering polished async handoffs reviewed by design, product, and dev teams— all during high-pressure demo and fundraising sprints.

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