Why the Best Immersive Experiences Succeed

What makes a great immersive experience? It's a relevant question right now as we see more brands trying to find the right way to both capture attention and bring their products and services to life. Beyond marketing, it's also a question getting lots of attention now in the world of entertainment to bring franchises to life and allow people to live inside stories too. ​HBR offers an answer to this question​ through a model shared by authors of a story all about what makes immersive experiences succeed while others don't:

As people enter a new experience, they seek answers, consciously or unconsciously, to six questions: Where am I? Who am I with? What can I do? What is happening? Am I making progress? and Why does this matter?

Each question reflects a distinct psychological dimension. Together they create the underlying structure through which immersion takes hold. For companies, addressing all six questions can be challenging. Most experiences tend to focus on answering certain questions while overlooking others. True success lies in ensuring visitors can answer all six in order, even if some are addressed more effectively than others.

The model is one worth considering for anyone who is trying to make any experience or gathering work, whether it's immersive through technology or just through the act of bringing humans together in the same room. The world needs more people who can design experiences like this to remind us about the power of connection and what unexpected magic might happen when these strategic questions have equally thoughtful answers.