Role
Developer & Product Lead | Mowa Lab Project
Skills
of Gestures
Overview
The Language of Gestures is an interactive project exploring how common gestures change meaning across cultures. The project demonstrates that everyday movements such as nodding, beckoning, pointing, or making eye contact do not carry universal meanings. Instead, their interpretation varies depending on cultural norms, etiquette, and social context. Users can select gestures and explore how their meanings differ around the world through animated gesture icons, interactive maps, and contextual explanations.
Why was it built?
The project was created to explore how interactive product design can reveal patterns in human communication and cultural behaviour. It also serves as an experiment in building interfaces that allow users to explore cultural systems through data-driven interaction.
How was it built?
The project combines narrative storytelling with an interactive exploration interface that allows users to select gestures and see how their meanings vary across cultures. The application was developed using React and TypeScript, enabling a modular interface where gesture selection dynamically updates the visualisation layer.
- React + TypeScript for building the interactive UI.
- Tailwind CSS for layout and styling.
- Framer Motion for animated gesture transitions and interface interactions.
- Leaflet with OpenStreetMap tiles for the global visualisation of gesture meanings.
- Custom datasets modelling gesture meanings, contexts, and regional variations.
What did I do?
- Developed the product concept and research framework.
- Designed the dataset mapping gesture meanings across cultures.
- Created the interaction model centred around gesture selection and exploration.
- Implemented gesture animations and interactive visualisations.
- Structured the narrative flow explaining cultural differences in non-verbal communication.
Results
- Created an interactive project visualising patterns in human communication across cultures.
- Demonstrated how behavioural datasets can be translated into exploratory product interfaces.