The Value of Immersive Experiences and How to Create Them
Why do we enjoy going to movie theatres, riding roller coasters, going on safari trips or attending festivals? Most of all, why do we enjoy participating in these kinds of activities instead of simply looking at pictures of or reading about them?
Because they are immersive experiences that appeal to our human senses.
Immersive experiences allow you to lose yourself in them, to be completely taken away, because of how they are presented. Input is provided to several of your senses, making you forget about the actual space you are in. Just remember the last time you were in a movie theatre, completely engrossed in the sounds and sights for a few hours, forgetting the fact that you were seated in a dark room with rows of strangers.
The role of technology in immersive experiences
As more technology becomes increasingly mainstream and widely available, we are provided with the ability to create a greater variety of immersive experiences (impossible to do before without technology).
Two great examples are Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). VR supersedes your surroundings, visually shutting you off from reality and taking you to a parallel virtual world that you can interact with through controllers. AR, VR's sister technology, adds layers to actual experience, projecting information on top of reality to give it a different dimension. A few examples include Nintendo's Pokémon Go App or Instagram filters.
But affecting visual senses isn’t the only way to create immersive experiences. Audio is another big method. By using earbuds or headphones that support spatial audio, watching a movie during a red-eye flight will be completely different.
Bringing other senses into the mix can also make experiences even more exotic. The use of AR layers and custom perfumes can provide an out-of-this-world experience. Combining effects on different senses can make experiences more consuming and engrossing. It will make you feel like Alice in Wonderland. All these aforementioned technologies could even be combined with tactile feedback, light and colour experiences. The possibilities and combinations are limitless.
Why does this matter?
Because appropriately utilising such technology can offer better and more meaningful interactions with and for your customers. However, applying these technologies to products and experiences simply because you can will not necessarily enhance them. In fact, applying technology just because it's readily available may only succeed in making things complex and disorienting. It's important to figure out what technologies will successfully make particular products or experiences more immersive and engaging.
How to go about creating them?
There are several things to keep in mind as you experiment with creating immersive experiences:
- Immersive experiences can be difficult to get right from the get-go, so don't shy away from some trial and error.
- Building such experiences is highly personal and may not appeal to everyone.
- Although the technologies exist, they can be expensive. Start with prototyping and a limited number of technologies you'd like to focus on. Then build on your prototype based on the feedback it receives.
A word of caution: using technologies to influence the human senses can be dangerous or may cause severe side effects. Don't hesitate to seek proper advice in due time.