UX/UI, Visual Design
Elsidae: App Design for Dreamers
Fall 2017
THE BRIEF:Design a mobile experience for the needs of a specific user leveraging the power of crowdsourcing or data aggregation.
DESIGN QUESTION:How can the design of a mobile application assist avid dreamers in tracking, understanding, and sharing their dreams to increase their sense of self and community?
Research + Discovery
I began my investigation by developing a detailed persona, scenario, and user journey map from which to work.
Persona
Meet Delilah, aka "The Dreamy Nanny." Delilah is very concerned with personal wellness and is a dream enthusiast. She feels as though she's reached a standstill in her life and doesn't feel passionately about anything in particular. She also struggles with meeting new people who share common interests. She works as a nanny and is very connected to her iPhone.
Concept Development
After the research + discovery phase, I began to sketch wireframes of some key functionality of the app and consider appropriate visual systems.
Final Product Development
Visual Design
When designing the visual style of the app I chose 3 brand attributes to work with: curious, imaginative, and free. I chose the flying fish as a metaphor for the other-worldly journey of discovery each user would embark on and used it as the primary logo. The choices of a dark interface, color, and typography were all similarly meant to reinforce my chosen brand attributes. The name "Elsidae" comes from the scientific name of flying fish, but was also meant to allude to the word "elsewhere" and the common expression "one-a-day."
Key Functionality
The app allows Delilah to keep a dream diary and track connections between the content of her dreams and the places she visits throughout her day. It also allows her to see which of these places is "enchanted" based on the number of users in the app are also dreaming about it. She can also see who she shares the most dream connections with and build her dream community. Data about her dreams can be viewed in a variety of forms and Delilah can revisit any of her dreams at any time.
Elsidae: Clickable Prototype