Designing for dreamers
As a side project, I created Catcher an app that can allow a user to both record their dreams and find multiple versions of the meaning. It is only a prototype for the time being but I look forward to a future where it can be downloaded onto any phone.
Many of my friends and I love finding out what our dreams mean from different perspectives. It is interesting to see the seeing similarities and difference amongst all the beliefs of the world.
How might we...
Currently there is no one place to search dream meanings and get multiple different perspectives/meanings for a dream from different cultures and beliefs across the globe.
COMPETITIVE RESEARCH
I started with research to see if there are apps like this already. I found many apps in the Google play store that either lookup dream meanings or are a dream diary but there was no app that did both.
Name
Dream interpretation
Description
Dream symbols described in general manner.
Strengths
Covers a lot of information with dream symbols
Weaknesses
Only shows a western perspective to dream symbols. There are more to dreams than symbols. There is no way to log your dreams using this app.
Name
Dream Journal Ultimate
Description
Dream journal with social component. Can share dreams with other users and comment on them.
Strengths
Very easy to track dreams and log them.
Weaknesses
No dream dictionary or ways to search your logged dreams.
Pixels in motion
I started looking at different software I could use to prototype Catcher. I had used InVision before but I heard about Facebook's new prototype software Origami Studio. I thought it would be fun to learn how to use it and prototype Catcher.
USER RESEARCH
After working hard on my prototype I knew it was time to test it. I have never been sacred when it coming to approaching people and asking them for their help or opinion. I tested people who were around me on campus. I tested around 45 people, making them walk through the prototype after telling them what it was about.
Demographics of Users
-Age: 18-26
-University Students
-All Genders
-Different ethnic backgrounds
-Tech-savvy
At the end, most the users I tested could fit into two categories.
1) OMG, I love this! Would use this all the time
2) Cool, but would never really use this.
Feedback
It was the first prototype and there was a lot of room for improvement. I got a mix of positive and negative feedback but there were a couple main things that users pointed out to me to help improve Catcher.
-Add voice record component instead of typing
-Add drawing component
-Highlight common terms in the log and click them to search
-Add option to edit and save all the variations of the dream
-Add hamburger menu icon for better navigation
Ending the Dream
I decided not to continue with this idea because I felt the market for it was too small. If you were to combine all the downloads of the most popular dream apps in the Google play store you would not get more than 20,000 users. Not to mention that just because an app is downloaded does not mean it is actually being used. I also didn't want to create an app filled with advertisements just to be able to pay off the costs of making it. For those reasons and more Catcher got put on the shelf.