How design shifts when content moves from feeds to worlds
What happens when we stop designing for infinite scroll and start designing for infinite space.
We’re all familiar with scrolling. It’s how we navigate almost everything—social feeds, news articles, product catalogs, music libraries. Scroll, tap, repeat. It’s efficient, predictable, and designed for speed. Or, in the case of popular social platforms, for addictive consumption.
But a new generation of platforms has been trying something different. Often grouped under the term Metaverse, these platforms promise immersiveness. Powered by real-time 3D engines, WebGL, VR headsets, and spatial computing, these platforms present content not as static media, but as dynamic, evolving environments. You don’t just click—you jump or teleport from one experience to another.
This shift brings energy, creativity, and a whole new kind of complexity.
Because when content is delivered as a world—not a page—it raises an important design question: How do we help people discover content when discovery itself becomes spatial?
This isn’t an article with concrete answers.
It’s a reflection on what we’ve observed—and what we think designers should be thinking about as the boundaries of the interface continue to expand.
A spatial concept for content discovery: worlds floating like destinations, waiting for the user to choose or wander.
From scroll to space
In any digital environment, discovery isn’t a side feature—it’s central to how users engage, return, and feel in control. When people can’t find what they’re looking for—or might enjoy—or worse, don’t even know how to begin looking, they disconnect.
In Metaverse platforms like Decentraland or Horizon Worlds, this challenge becomes even more complex. Content is often scattered, evolving, and created by users themselves. It needs to feel organized—but without losing the sense of freedom or the productive chaos that defines these communities.
That’s what drew us in. We were asked to concept a discovery system for a spatial, user-generated platform. One where traditional navigation tools—like search bars, side menus, or filters—needed to be rethought.
Before reusing familiar UX patterns, we had to reconsider something more fundamental:
What does a piece of content look like when it becomes a world?
We wanted to understand:
When users build the content, how do we help others find it?
And in an immersive space, how do we design for orientation—not just access?
To explore those questions, we looked outward—observing how existing immersive platforms approach discovery, where users get stuck, and what emerging patterns might help us think differently.
We reimagined how a single piece of content could be experienced by users—not just as a file, but as a spatial entity within an interconnected world.
Why existing immersive content platforms still feel hard to use
As we explored multiple Metaverse platforms—some gaming-focused, some more like social hubs—we kept encountering the same kinds of friction.
- Unclear spatial logic. Content was often placed on 2D maps, but the underlying structure wasn’t intuitive. Worlds belonged to districts, neighborhoods, or entire universes—but those relationships weren’t easy to understand. “Home” might be a plaza or hub, but it lacked visual distinction. Spatial organization existed, but without clear hierarchy or cues, orientation felt like guesswork.
- Inconsistent interaction logic. One moment you click. The next, you walk. Then you're pressing "E" or pointing mid-air. The way users interacted with the world shifted constantly, making it hard to build intuition.
- Minimalism that added noise. Clean UI was rarely clean in practice. Floating buttons, icons, and labels competed for attention—creating visual noise that disguised itself as simplicity.
- Exits were hard to find. Leaving a space was often hidden, ambiguous, or buried in unfamiliar flows. It echoed the logic of infinite scroll—only in spatial form.
- Discovery felt more random than relevant. What surfaced was often what was trending. Rarely what felt personally meaningful. Without filters, tags, or curation layers, content felt detached from user intent.
- Flat patterns in immersive settings. Even in VR environments, many platforms still relied on 2D interface conventions—menus and buttons floating in mid-air. This disconnect between form and context often made the immersive promise feel superficial (try Roblox in VR to see).
These platforms are still evolving. Technical limits, shifting audiences, and constant experimentation all shape how they function. Not everything is polished—and that’s okay.
What matters is that design has a role to play. Not just in adapting old patterns, but in exploring new ones—ones that feel native to spatial environments and support how people actually want to discover.
Originally created for Nemus Futurum to express ecological regeneration, this interaction shows how visual feedback—like growing path—can also serve as a subtle form of spatial guidance in immersive environments.
What we’re wondering
As we were proposing new concepts, we’re interested in the questions these patterns raise—because they apply far beyond immersive platforms.
- What if discovery worked more like world exploration?
- What if orientation came from mood, rhythm, or sound—not maps?
- What if UI elements were integrated into the environment—not layered on top?
- What if exits were empowering—not elusive?
- What if discovery felt more like narrative space than a ranked list?
- What if users could describe where they want to go—and the system helped them get there?
- What if different levels of experience shaped different discovery flows?
These aren’t just questions for “the Metaverse.” They’re questions for anyone designing digital experiences where discovery is meant to be felt, not just shown. And as much as this is more obvious in game-like experiences, we are seeing a new wave of social platforms reflecting on similar values.
This matters—even outside immersive space
This project didn’t give us all the answers—but it gave us sharper questions. And those questions go far beyond the Metaverse or content platforms.
They apply to any digital space where:
- Users need to discover, not just consume
- Interaction is becoming immersive, spatial, or nonlinear
- Content is dynamic, decentralized, or user-driven
- Interfaces are starting to feel more like worlds than websites
Whether you’re building a virtual exhibition, a WebGL-powered brand experience, a game-like learning tool, or a speculative prototype—there’s a growing need to rethink how we guide, orient, and empower users in unfamiliar terrain.
Because in these emerging environments, discovery isn’t just about usability. It’s about narrative, emotion, and spatial logic.
We believe design should adapt to context—not the other way around. And that means being ready to think spatially, narratively, and sometimes experimentally.
If you’re exploring strange new spaces—virtual or otherwise—we’d love to imagine them with you.