Spatial interfaces · 2026
Kinesis OS
A spatial operating system and its gestural interface layer
4.2 ms
Pointer to photon
+340%
Tasks completed per session
94.8%
Returned the following week
Interface architecture & spatial experience
We build the interfaces that do not exist yet.
Real-time graphics, spatial interaction and interface systems for products that have to feel like nothing else on the market. The field behind this page is the engine, running live — not a video of one.
120 fps
Sustained on the reference build
<4 ms
Pointer-to-photon, measured
5
Simulations in the field
Live
Field engine
Transform-feedback particle integration, WebGL2
simulation—
nodes—
palette—
frame rate—
Move the pointer
reading the page
Selected work
Five engagements where the interface was the product. Every figure below was measured on the shipped build, not projected in a deck.
Nothing in that discipline yet.
The lab
The techniques the studio keeps sharp, running where you can push them. The field presets are the real simulation behind this page — pick one and the page changes, not a preview of it.
Five simulations, one engine
Positions and velocities are integrated on the GPU with transform feedback; the trail is a ping-ponged framebuffer, not a translucent rectangle painted over the last frame. Nothing here is drawn on the CPU.
Pick one and the page changes — this is the field behind the site, not a preview of it. It stops entirely under a reduced-motion preference and pauses when the tab is hidden.
What is running right now
simulation—
palette—
nodes—
frame rate—
Specular response
Three light sources laid into one surface, with the highlight tracking the pointer against the plate's own normal. Move across it; the sheen leads the tilt slightly, which is what makes a flat rectangle read as a physical object.
The same treatment carries the case-study plates and the panels across the site, so the surface language is one decision rather than five.
Synthesised, not sampled
Every cue is generated at the moment it plays — an oscillator, an envelope, sometimes a filter sweep. No audio files ship with the theme, and nothing plays until you ask for it.
Practice
Most interfaces fail in the same place: they are designed once and engineered afterwards. We do not separate the two, and everything below follows from that.
01
Proportion is arithmetic, not taste
Every measure on this page comes from one type scale and one spacing unit. It is not a stylistic preference — a layout built on invented numbers has no way to stay coherent as it grows, and the incoherence is what a visitor reads as cheap without being able to name it.
02
Latency is a material
The gap between a gesture and its response is the single strongest signal of quality an interface emits, and it is the first thing sacrificed when the visual layer runs on the main thread. So the heavy work runs on the GPU and the main thread stays free to answer the pointer.
03
Sound is optional, and means it
Interface audio is powerful and almost always imposed. Ours is synthesised rather than sampled, silent until asked for, remembered once chosen, and gone the moment the tab loses focus.
04
The fallback is the design
A reduced-motion visitor, a device with no WebGL2, a blocked script: each gets a settled, complete, deliberate page rather than a broken version of a better one. If the degraded state is an afterthought, the work is not finished.
Capabilities
What a engagement actually contains, by row. Ask about any line and it arrives in the inquiry below already filled in.
Recognition
2026
Site of the Year, nominated
2026
Craft citation
2025
Selected work
2025
Grand prix, digital craft
2026
Studio of the year, index entry
We had been told for two years that nobody works in a headset for more than twenty minutes. Aetheria did not argue with that; they went and found the reason, and then designed around it. Our internal team now uses the thing all day, which is the only proof that ever mattered.
Our analysts used to reconstruct the shape of the book in their heads from eleven separate tables. Now it is on the screen and they can see a concentration forming. The engineering under it is very good, but that is not what changed how the desk works.
They spent six weeks on how light crosses a fold. I thought it was indulgent until I saw the first render next to the physical swatch. Our customers are now ordering the piece they actually receive.
Start a project
Tell us what the thing has to do and what would make it worth doing. A partner reads every brief that arrives here.
Direct
[email protected]
Studios
Tokyo · San Francisco · Zurich · London
Typical reply
Under 12 hours