Overview
Ciam Si (籤詩) is a traditional Chinese divination ritual — you shake a container of numbered sticks until one falls out, then receive a poem with guidance. Ciamsi brings this to the browser, built as a tribute for Chinese New Year 2026.
The Problem
Not a product problem — a cultural one. The ritual is meaningful but inaccessible outside temples. Building it digitally meant preserving the feeling: the anticipation, the physicality, the atmosphere.
What Was Built
- — Device motion support — shake your phone like the real thing
- — Haptic feedback — the stick "falling" triggers a vibration
- — Atmospheric audio — ambient sound to set the mood
What Made It Interesting
The challenge was less about logic and more about the sensory layer — making a browser app feel ceremonial. Device motion APIs are inconsistently supported across devices, so graceful fallbacks were essential.