VISUALIZING AND INTERPRETING OUR DREAMS
Melo
ROLE
TIMELINE
TOOLS
TEAM
OVERVIEW
RESEARCH
Dreams often provide insight into our subconscious mind, revealing the emotions, memories, and anxieties of our waking life.
To gain insight into dream recall and perception, we held interviews and asked people to share details about their dreams and how they experienced them
“I tried journalling my dreams but I lose details so quickly… sometimes I’d check later and realize I wrote gibberish.”
"I have so many dreams at night that they all kind of blur together…"
"Yea sometimes my dreams repeat, like I keep getting chased in this one dream, but I'm like, running in slow mo…"
THE PROBLEM
People forget dreams within minutes of waking. Since the average person has 3-6 dreams per night, details are lost very easily and unreliable upon recall.
Dreams are often very complex, making it hard to interpret and gain insights from if not approached correctly.
Reworked problem statement
So, what if we could turn dreams into actionable reflections, helping users understand their subconscious and emotional well-being?
DESIGN DECISIONS
The ideation for this project began with determining the core features of the app and creating a user flow diagram. Followed by rough sketches of the user interface, we were able to outline the skeleton of the app.
User flow diagram
Wireframes
Based on our early-stage wireframes, we developed a set of low-fidelity screens that translated initial concepts into more structured interface layouts. Using a consistent design system, we rapidly iterated on these screens, maintaining visual and functional consistency across the experience.
Lo-fi wireframes
Final design
FINAL DELIVERY
Not only do our features allow users to revisit past dreams, but they also use AI to help interpret and organize them to identify patterns in sleep behaviour over time, giving users deeper insight into their thoughts, emotions, and overall sleep habits.
A collection of photos are taken and complied to make a scrollable moving scene. Users can look at key moments in their dream identified by AI to gain dream-specific insights.
*concept inspired by iPhone live photos
Users can open their dream archive calendar to look back at old dreams. All dreams are organized by date and show a thumbnail photo to refresh memory.
Users can use the search bar to type in key words or the filter to categorize dreams for easy access and identification.
By examining biometric data, users can more effectively quantify and compare their sleep patterns.
CONSIDERATIONS
Challenge we encountered
Considering that the development of tools to record and interpret dreams are still very limited, we struggled with the practicality of this tool and wanted to further explore gaps in our product.
Edge Case 1
Revisiting past dreams may bring up uncomfortable or traumatic emotions.
Melo presents daily reminders that inform users of recent dreaming patterns. By using gentle, encouraging language, it offers soft reflection prompts to reduce anxiety and foster self-compassion.
People often have multiple dreams during a single sleep cycle, or take many naps throughout their day.
Melo detects multiple dream segments throughout the night and day by picking up on biometric shifts and categorizes them by the theme.
Drawn by Cathy Yin
Users may not experience dreams everyday, or have dreams that are cohesive enough for proper analysis by our AI system.
There is no solution! Proactive self-awareness should occur in our conscious state too. Melo helps to illuminate underlying emotions, serving as a reminder for us to prioritize our health and well-being.
TAKEAWAYS
Things I'd do differently
Looking back, I would’ve conducted more user testing to better understand how people interacted with the product and refined the experience based on real feedback. We initially created two versions of the user flow but chose the current one based on personal judgment. Next time, I would run A/B testing to guide my design decisions.
Next Steps
Melo primarily focuses on dream tracking and visualization, but another feature I hope to add in the future is a personalized AI guidance system. Users don't always know where to begin improving their lives, so this feature would provide personalized recommendations on habits, routines, and day-to-day actions based on their emotional dream patterns.
Life Lesson Learned
When designing Melo, it became less about analyzing dreams over time and more about holding space to stay with them a little longer. That same awareness can extend into our waking lives, helping us notice what we often overlook and reminding us to care for our health and well-being with greater intention.
SEE MORE WORKS
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