DREAMR.

Project Pitch Deck

DREAMR. is a mobile visual microblogging platform for users interested in creating and sharing collages inspired from their everyday thoughts, ideas and dreams.

Through combining user input via audio and text, users are able to access and array of digital imagery available through image engines such as Google Images, Bing and even Instagram.

Precedents & Inspiration

Some inspirations for this project included popular early 2000s web journaling platforms like Xanga and Live Journal along with Dreammoods, a dream symbol "dictionary".

Some inspirations for this project included popular early 2000s web journaling platforms like Xanga and Live Journal along with Dreammoods, a dream symbol "dictionary".

Initial Personas & Users

Initial User Interviews (PDF)

persona2.png

Ryan, 18 - 25, Recent Grad

Kept a dream journal as a kid but not likely to remember dreams now. Highly into visual content, especially illustration and graphics

Sofia, 18 - 25, Digital Art Enthusiast

Spends a lot of time on Tumblr and Instagram. Highly visual but also experimental and quirky. Doesn’t take the internet too seriously

Paper Prototyping

Initial Paper Prototypes centered around the usage of words to track dreams. Users could add and track key words to describe their dreams and click further to review the meaning of keywords or categorize key words

Initial Paper Prototypes centered around the usage of words to track dreams. Users could add and track key words to describe their dreams and click further to review the meaning of keywords or categorize key words

Initial User Testing Feedback & Interviews

  • Hard to remember dreams from the night before making tracking them harder

  • Specific objects in dreams may have personalized meanings that may not captured by a general “dream dictionary”

  • Strong preference for use of imagery over audio and text journals. Users thought words were not enough to make them want to come back to the app

  • One user questioned whether subconscious dreams are directly related to conscious life

  • Interface was confusing to use. Also felt that the use of images would be more desirable than words

  • 4/6 interviewees thought visual imagery would be a cool way to reframe their dreams
  • 3/6 interviewees stated that they would not be able to remember their dreams or would have trouble writing about them

Re-Evaluating Concepts and Interaction

The initial interviews made me re-think how "accurate" a dream recording app could be after receiving feedback on how hard it is to remember a dream. The added emphasis on the need for imagery prompted me re-evaluate the purpose of the app and transition from a keywords based storage system to a photographic content generator that uses keywords and search engine functionality

Less serious, less focus on being "factual"

  • Users feel less pressure to memorize their dreams 100%
  • Can be beneficial for users who may not want to share dreams, but form thought collages

Implementing imagery

  • Using the web to scrape for relevant imagery, animated gif, etc.
  • Using this imagery to form dream collages that users can show and share instead of dream journals

Prototype 2 & Product Demo

My second prototype allowed used to input keywords into the app using voice or text. These keywords would be used to source images via API-based image search engines such as Google Image or Instagram. Each image returned would be layered on the other to produce collages

App Workflow

Design

Logo

Logo

Fonts: Fredonka One & Neue Black

Fonts: Fredonka One & Neue Black

Color Palette

Color Palette