#Dreamer ##by HAAKD

###What is Dreamer?

Dreamer is web-based application created by Team HAAKD as part of the course DECO7180 Design Computing Studio 1 - Interactive Technology. The application enables users to share and explore dreams in a predominantly visual manner through the incorporation of artwork from Trove, a database maintained by the National Library of Australia.

We were inspired to create Dreamer after recognizing the mismatch between the ways in which dreams are portrayed in film and media and the ways in which dream-related applications are designed. In film and literature, dreams are often presented in very magical ways …yet most dream-related web applications present dreams in rather boring ways. These websites look more like pinboards and forums. While they may make dream sharing and dream exploration easy and convenient, they can be quite bland both in terms of visual design and interactions. In addition to this, the photos these websites utilize do not add any additional meaning to dreams and are typically overly literal. With Dreamer, we aim to change up the experience of sharing and exploring dreams on a web-based platform. We do this by purposefully connecting Trove artwork to users’ dreams to add new dimensions to these dreams. This provides Dreamer users with with a more visually rich experience that augments their own content.

Dreamer’s visual design has largely been inspired by the Pixar animated movie Inside Out, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and the website I Remember. The application draws upon dream representations in film in media in order to construct a magical user experience. The employment of exploratory navigation is intended to make users feel as if they are immersed within an actual setting with shelves of glowing orbs, freely exploring dreams like one might explore books within a library.

With Dreamer, we hope to stimulate creativity amongst our audience by creating an alluring and immersive user experience through unique interactions and aesthetic appeal augmented by the wealth of artwork present within the Trove library.

###Who are we? We are HAAKD, a team of 5 Master of Interaction Design Students taking the course DECO7180 Design Computing Studio 1.

###How it works?

Dreamer has four core aspects: orbs (which contain dreams), the dream library (which contains orbs), the pensieve, and the dreamcatcher.

Each orb represents a unique dream created by a Dreamer user.

When you’re in the dream library, you can create your own dream by clicking the add a dream button. You’ll be prompted to type out your dream, select the emotion you most associate with it, and choose two relevant images of artwork based on your own search keywords. Once you’re happy with the images, drag the orb to the pensieve to save your dream.

You can find your dream within the dream library represented by the orb with the dashed line around it. Or, as the first orb within the "my dreams" row.

To view a dream, all you need to do is drag an orb to the pensieve.

To view random dreams, you can also click on the dreamcatcher here on the homepage.

Sweet dreams!