Overview: DreamMate is a bedtime companion app that helps users relax, capture late-night ideas, and build healthy sleep habits through a gentle, gamified experience with a virtual pet.
Role: UI/UX designer, UX Researcher
Toolkit: Figma, FigJam, Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, Pencil and paper
Test PrototypeThis research aim to investigate how people engage with digital tools to track, understand, and improve their sleep. This study seeks insights into how technology can help users build better sleep habits and overall well-being.
Five people were interviewed. All interviews have been conducted remotely by using Zoom meeting.
Twenty survey responses were collected. All surveys have been collected by Google docs.
1. Core Problem – Autonomy vs. Exhaustion People stay up late not from necessity, but to reclaim lost autonomy. Insight: Design should focus on redefining “personal time,” not enforcing restriction.
2. Primary Obstacle – Device Overstimulation Phones offer irresistible stimulation and instant gratification that delay sleep. Insight: Alternatives must provide equal satisfaction with lower stimulation.
3. Pain Point – Mind and Ritual Management Overthinking and anxiety prevent mental shutdown before sleep. Insight: Design should create a calming ritual that transitions users into rest.
Conclusion: Create a pre-sleep ritual companion that restores autonomy, satisfies without overstimulation, and eases mental tension.
37y/o AI Researcher - Always feel sleep-deprived
22y/o Fashion Design Assistant - Skeptical User
While the business goal was mainly to attract as many users as possible by clearly showing how the app improves sleep, I focused on understanding real user sleep habits and pain points, identifying where business objectives and user needs intersected.
After drafting the initial P1 features, I realized I needed to focus only on the essentials for an MVP. The final version included core features like signup, personalized sleep tracking, and reminders, alongside special features such as sleep challenges and progress credits to motivate engagement.
I built a sitemap considering primary, secondary, and tertiary navigation. First, I defined the primary navigation based on main user actions: track sleep, explore sleep content, check progress, and manage settings. Then, I expanded each section to include relevant sub-actions and options.
I identified two main user flows:
These flows ensure users can actively improve their sleep habits while engaging with the app’s virtual pet system—where the pet grows and thrives as users maintain healthy sleep routines. Ideally, a third flow—Participate in community sleep challenges—could be explored in future updates, but for the MVP, I focused on the main flows.
It was quite straightforward to build up task flows. What I did was to expand in depth and explore users actions even further:
First of all, I’ve explored potential naming solutions and marks for my logo. Eventually, I’ve decided to go for Dreammate. The name Dreammate contains the words dream and mate.
I’ve created a color palette with 1 primary, 2 secondary and 3 neutral colours. The choice for typography has fallen on Hubballi, a modern sans-serif font with clean and rounded strokes, offering high readability. Combining geometric structure with a hand-drawn humanist touch, it presents a soft, friendly, yet professional visual impression.
I mainly worked with components and variants throughout the Dreammate project, which made building the prototype smooth and consistent. To maintain a calm and cohesive flow, I used gentle transition effects across most screens—reflecting the app’s relaxing, sleep-oriented atmosphere. For the onboarding sequence, however, I introduced slightly more dynamic transitions to suggest a sense of discovery and motivation. Additionally, I created a short breathe animation to make the prototype experience feel more alive and emotionally engaging.
Overall, the usability test was positive. Users easily understood the app’s purpose and appreciated the relaxing visual tone. A few adjustments were made to improve navigation clarity and pacing, ensuring the experience felt as intuitive and soothing as the app’s goal—to help users build healthier sleep habits.
- To identify unique value in the highly competitive sleep & wellness app market - To balance personalization features with simplicity for first-time users - To anticipate user behaviors like late-night phone usage and irregular schedules when designing notifications and reminders
- Understanding real user routines can guide thoughtful feature prioritization and interactions - Small design details, like subtle micro-interactions or bedtime reminders, can greatly improve engagement - Consistency in visual language and flow makes the app feel intuitive, reducing cognitive load for users