TJX/Homegoods
Dream Vibes
Web App
AI/ML Integration
Audio & Digital Production
Solution
Create a compelling web portal to leverage the powerful machine intelligence of IBM Watson, matching customers' prose to curated styles.
Insight
To capture the subtle cues in a user’s dream, sophisticated analysis would be called for—far more complex than simple keyword association.
Challenge
Homegoods’ has the singular idea of using dream interpretation to tap into a customer’s psyche and find the perfect personalized style for them.
Working with the whimsical concept of having the vibes of one’s dreams translated into an assortment of decor, obviously it had to have an equally matching whimsical design! And what fun it was scrap-booking together an aesthetic with dream-like wonder. Coming up with the UX was pretty straight forward, modeling it after personality tests, with the twist that the user could choose to dictate their dream or type it out. The main challenge was designing a style that could work with hundreds of textures and colors reflecting a jumble of different moods based upon the users input.
As one who also has wild wacky dreams, I took inspiration from Alice in Wonderland for the design to tie together a style that is both mismatched but cohesive in its madness.
My Role
Reception
The experience was as much amusing as it was informative, funneling the customers' subconscious into a fun experience that surprised and delighted customers.
Development
Settling on IBM’s Watson as our dream oracle, we used its tonal analysis to interpret cryptic text into a set of emotions we could use. We then tied these into a sophisticated web of styles, encompassing all manner of colors, material swatches, and products to pair with the user’s subconscious. These samples were then wrapped up with cheeky monikers into shareable assets for the customer’s amusement, becoming a tool of expression in and of itself.
Background
Homegoods has such a abundance of inventory that any given person can find a suitable style for themselves within their walls—but how to get that customer see the trees through the forest? By tapping into their subconscious to feed them the colors, patterns, and styles they didn’t even realized were perfect for them, that’s how. And dreams would become the gateway by which to siphon the customer’s psyche.
Dream Vibes
A whimsical web portal which allowed Homegoods customers to describe their dreams in order to have them interpreted into a personalized interior design profile.