Portfolio · 2026
Kate Besel
UX Researcher & Designer @ FASTER Emergency Technologies | Co-founder, TreeTest AI | SCAD '27
Case Studies
Health Insurance Literacy
Reframed health insurance enrollment from 'better materials' to 'better translation' after stats showed time and sources don't predict understanding.
Convoy
Redesigned last-mile package delivery after research proved users wouldn't pay to protect packages they barely think about.
ShopGoodwill
Redesigned ShopGoodwill's navigation across two courses of primary research — dropped Favorites Tab time by 89% and surfaced a second problem the redesign hadn't accounted for.
Currently Building
TreeTest AI
Beta · Launching September 2026An AI-powered UX research platform I'm building with Drake Durflinger. Real UX research is usually locked behind enterprise tools that run $40k a year — we're opening it up. Anyone can run card sorts, tree tests, and usability studies with AI doing the heavy lifting, plus an AI engine that scores a site's UX without participants. Free during beta, bring-your-own-AI-key, and the core stays free for students.
I'm running UX research on the product itself through beta this summer — a full case study will follow.
About
I'm a junior studying UX Research at SCAD, using mixed-methods research to build products that make the world safer and more intuitive.
My flagship project is TreeTest AI, an AI-powered UX research platform I co-founded with Drake Durflinger — opening up real UX research to the students and small teams that expensive enterprise tools lock out. By day, I research and design emergency-response technology at FASTER Emergency Technologies, a pre-seed startup.
Outside of work, I spin house records. I'm drawn to products that operate in high-stakes or underserved contexts, where getting the design right leads to real, lasting impact.