EMPATHIZE: INTERVIEWING THE LISTENING TO DREAMERS
In Empathize, I focused on the half-awake window—how people actually remember, hesitate, and decide to record a dream. I combined 1:1 interviews, a targeted competitive scan, and empathy mapping to surface behaviors, emotions, and privacy needs that shape the capture flow. These findings became personas, user stories, and journey maps that translate raw listening into clear, testable design decisions.
GOALS & APPROACH
Goal: Understand recall decay, friction points, and privacy expectations right after waking.
INTERVIEW GOALS
The research focused on what helps or blocks capture in the first 1–3 minutes, how mood, light, noise, and energy shape behavior, and what people need to feel safe when saving or sharing. I also probed expectations around reminders—timing, tone, and perceived intrusiveness.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Conversations were narrative first, then probed for decisions and feelings: “Walk me through the last time you remembered a dream—what happened from waking to capture?”, “When do you reach for phone versus notebook, and why?”, “What would reassure you about privacy or sharing to therapy?” These prompts revealed friction, trust gaps, and the language users naturally use.
Recall decays fast, so success depends on immediate, low-cognition capture. People fear losing progress mid-recording, which creates exit anxiety—suggesting a save-as-draft safeguard. Notification models felt confusing unless simplified to one clear toggle with an optional weekly summary. Sharing required explicit confirmation and visible traceability, and sensitive content needed a clearly marked state. Finally, expressive capture—voice, sketch, or audio attachments—made entries feel truer and easier to revisit.
Mental State Upon Waking
KEY INSIGHTS
“I forget everything unless I write it right away, but writing feels like a chore. My brain is still half asleep. I can’t even remember how the dream ended.”
People often feel mentally foggy and emotionally unprepared to write down dreams in the early waking state.
2. Emotional Barriers to Expression
“It’s like I have to emotionally decompress the dream before I can explain it. If it was a sad or anxious dream, I’d rather avoid going back into it.”
Users feel emotionally overwhelmed or avoidant, making it hard to describe dreams in depth.
3. Input Preferences & Frustrations
“I’ve thought about recording voice notes, but I always feel weird doing it. Writing takes too long, especially if I’m still lying in bed.”
Writing feels like friction. Voice input is intriguing but underused due to awkwardness or habit.
Approach: Short, context-rich interviews; artifact walk-throughs (recent dreams); competitive scan of journaling/mental-health apps.
