.jpg)
.jpg)
Arxiu de Patrons — is an immersive XR archive based on botanical archives and the symbology of the Amazon that are installed in CCCB. It invites users to explore plant patterns not only visually but somatically—through gestures and embodiment. The experience is a mix of visual archives, hand-based interactions, and symbolic storytelling to make the invisible visible: the cultural, emotional, and spiritual meanings embedded in Amazonian flora. This project was developed for Meta Quest and hand tracking. The goal of the design was to design an interaction model that centers the user’s body—particularly the hand—as both a sensor and a site of knowledge transmission.
The research process started with an exploration of how Indigenous Amazonian cultures record and transmit knowledge through patterns, rituals, and the body. I visited the "Amazonia" exhibition at CCCB, where I observed how plants, fungi, and ecological forms serve not only as physical materials but also as cultural archives. Their structures — spirals, fractals, bilateral symmetries — became the visual and conceptual foundation of the project.
I wanted to avoid creating an experience that felt static or purely visual. Instead, the idea was to make interaction a ritualistic gesture, mirroring how many Amazonian traditions learn through doing and embodying. This approach shifted the design question from "What does the user see?" to "What does the user internalize through movement?"
.png)
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. Every gesture needed to feel natural and slow enough to encourage reflection — resisting the fast, task-oriented rhythm of most digital interfaces. All of this research grounded the prototype: a system where the user meets each plant pattern not through clicking or selecting, but through observation and absorption.
1. Right Hand as Main Interaction Input
The user’s right hand becomes the primary interface for interaction. To observe a plant pattern, the user will be guided how to navigate and mimics a “camera” gesture, to collect sample of the pattern and absorb the pattern with avisual transition that wraps the pattern texture onto the hand.
.png)
2. Spatial UI
Plant patterns are displayed on semi-transparent cards floating at chest height. Each card includes an illustration, a title, and a short description and Once interacted with, the illustration fades into a a sample pattern . The interface is spatial, floating in a dark, textile-lined room. Each botanical specimen appears within a glowing frame. Text explanations appear with a soft glow next to the specimen. Once a pattern is absorbed, it animates smoothly onto the user’s virtual hand. Design-wise, I wanted the UI to feel ritualistic and symbolic—not clinical. The glow effects and hand-drawn gesture icons help support this mood. Typography choices reflect a blend between informative and poetic to support this idea of " absorption ".
.png)
2. Accessibility & Usability
The user will be expected to stand and moves to interact with each card. No traditional UI elements are used. Instead, light pulses, gesture hints (line drawings), and soft shader animations guide the user through each step with only two core gestures (framing and pinching) are used throughout the experience . I made the prototype in shapesxr.
.png)
High Fidelity UI UX Design
The experience prototype made in ShapesXR
Thank you for reading ❤️
.png)
.png)