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Nunkui, The Forgotten Land is an immersive embodiment experience exploring the memory of the Amazon and the ancestral philosophies of communities who live in deep reciprocity with nature. The project blends multimodal storytelling, sensorial interaction design, and spatial computing to help users feel the emotional weight of ecological loss while reconnecting to the spiritual intelligence of the forest—an experience designed to slow people down, evoke empathy, and honour Indigenous wisdom at risk of being forgotten.
This project was developed as a collaboration between me and Jacqueline Montenegro, combining my work in XR UI/UX design, user interactions, and spatial narrative with Jacqueline’s role as Concept Artist & 3D Environment Artist, where she created the original botanical sketches, translated them into early 3D concepts using Copilot, modeled environmental elements in Blender, and shaped the textures and volumetric forms of the Nunkui world.
We worked through a hybrid workflow of narrative design, hand-drawn illustration, AI digitization, and 3D modeling , Jacqueline crafting the organic visual language, and I transforming these assets into a complete XR prototype through narrative direction, interaction design, spatial composition, and visual identity.
Our design process unfolded across several interconnected layers of narrative architecture, visual exploration, spatial prototyping, and embodiment mechanics. While the project was collaborative in its creation, the following sections focus on my design-driven approach and how the experience took form through XR thinking.
I crafted the visual identity, typography, and color language based on the natural palette of the Amazon , under-canopy greens, ember-like oranges, deep shadows, and soft gradients. This visual direction acted as the aesthetic spine of the experience, shaping not only UI decisions but also mood, light behavior, and spatial atmosphere.
I also studied natural interaction models already used in XR, focusing on hand tracking as a primary modality. Early sketches experimented with pinching, framing, and hovering as symbolic acts: selecting, embodying, and absorbing knowledge through minimal, intuitive hand movements. Designing for slowness and presence became a core principle.
The project began with hand-drawn designs that were later digitized, using AI as a supportive tool in the translation from sketch to digital form. This approach helped retain the original artistic intent and resulted in 3D models that remained faithful to the initial vision rather than being overly constrained by software defaults. These custom 3D models, created by Jacqueline, formed the basis of the core environment.
Hand as Main Interaction Input
The user’s hand becomes the primary interface for interaction, allowing engagement with the environment through natural gestures such as reaching, holding, and placing. Interaction is designed around a principle of reciprocity: users can take elements from nature, but they must return them to maintain balance. This mechanic reinforces a sense of give and take rather than consumption.
Plant patterns are presented on semi-transparent cards floating at chest height. Each card shows an illustration, a title, and a short description. When the user interacts with a card, the illustration transforms into a living pattern. The UI is designed to feel ritualistic rather than clinical. Glow effects, hand-drawn gesture icons, and poetic typography support the idea of absorption
High Fidelity UI UX Design
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I had the chance to present the very early iterations of this during MASS , 5th International Media and Society Symposium by İstinye Üniversitesi for their International XR Panel
Thank you for reading ❤️
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