In last month’s column, we explored the world of experience design and how it can shape the way we connect with people through space. This month, we will take that conversation a step further and zoom in on one of the most fascinating parts of that world, Immersive Experiences, and explore what the workplace can learn from them.
You may be thinking, what do Immersive Van Gogh, theme parks, escape rooms, or interactive art installations have to do with the workplace? At first glance, it may seem like they are at opposite ends. One is bold, playful, sometimes even over the top. The other has traditionally been a bit more structured, serious, and buttoned-up.
But here’s the reality: the person who spends the weekend at Disney or gets lost in an interactive exhibit is the same person who walks into the office Monday morning. And as humans, we’re craving the same things no matter where we are—belonging, connection, meaning, even a bit of joy. And in today’s “experience economy,” they expect those things not just on vacation, but at work too. If we study what makes immersive experiences so powerful, we can uncover lessons that help us design workplaces people actually want to be in. Workplaces that energize, connect, and inspire.
Here are seven takeaways from the immersive experience world that can reshape the future of work.
Storytelling: Creating Memorable Experiences
Every immersive experience begins with a story. Margaret Kerrison, a former Disney Imagineer and author of “Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds,” emphasizes the importance of story in creating the Disney experience. Story is what creates connection and meaning.
The same applies to the workplace. Every organization has a story, its brand, values, and culture. But the most important story is that of the employees. In that story, they are the hero. Their workday is a journey of solving problems, collaborating, and finding purpose and meaning along the way. Instead of asking how to push people to “return to office,” we should be asking: how do we make the workplace a story worth stepping into? How do we craft intentional narratives that make people feel engaged, connected, and excited for the journey ahead? When employees feel like protagonists in a larger meaningful narrative, the office stops being a location and becomes a stage for connection and shared experiences.
Multisensory Experiences
To be immersed is to be engaged through all your senses. Think of James Turrell’s powerful light installations or TeamLab’s mesmerizing sensorial art environment. They surround you. They change how you feel because they don’t just engage your eyes, but they engage your whole body.
Most office experiences, by contrast, are still dominated by the screen. Sitting all day, staring at a flat, two-dimensional screen. It’s no wonder so many people feel drained after a long workday. Workplaces can do better. They can layer sound, light, texture, and even scent to create environments that wake up the senses. Recently, J.P Morgan introduced a unique scent to their brand-new New York headquarters lobby. The 2025 NeoCon Turf showroom offered a glimpse of this by creating a sensory-rich environment that transported visitors from the busy showroom corridors. That same principle can energize the workplace: spaces that stimulate multiple senses simultaneously spark curiosity and creativity.
Emotional Design: Influencing Feelings
Immersive experiences work because they make us feel: curiosity, awe, surprise, connection, and joy. Those feelings are what make an experience unforgettable. Those emotions stick long after the visit is over.
On the other hand, workplace design often defaults to function over feeling. But people don’t stay engaged because of furniture or an efficient floor plan. They remember how space made them feel. Designing for emotion means being intentional. It’s about creating spaces that support calm during focus work, spark joy in moments of connection, and foster pride in being part of something bigger. Because emotions aren’t nice-to-have, but they are the key to engagement and belonging.
Personalized, Customized Experiences
Immersive experiences are becoming increasingly personalized. Taking cues from personalized digital platforms like Amazon, retail and cultural venues are experimenting with AI, VR, AR, and responsive environments to create tailored experiences. Random Studio’s projects are great examples, designing retail spaces that adapt to each shopper and provide customized product recommendations in real time.
The workplace can learn from these personalized experiences. Instead of asking employees to adapt to the static space, we can design experiences that are flexible and adjustable, responding to individual needs and preferences. Technology and sensors make this possible. Lighting, temperature, acoustics, and workspace set-up can be customized based on individual needs.
But beyond tech, crafting personalized experiences also happens at the team level. Think of an immersive experience of an intimate small group tasting event, compared to a large 500-person group dinner at a conference. Small, customized team experiences often resonate more deeply than large, one-size-fits-all firm-wide gatherings. When intentional workplace design creates opportunities for the small teams to share customized experiences, employees feel connection and meaning.
Participatory, Shared Experiences
Immersive experiences are rarely passive. Think about why escape rooms or interactive theater experiences work. It’s because you’re not just observing, but you are actively participating, solving puzzles or exploring challenges alongside others. That shared journey builds connection.
To promote team collaboration, workplaces often think furniture could be the solution. By labeling an open area as a collaboration zone and adding a lounge and ping-pong table, they hope for the collaboration to happen automatically. But participation and engagement aren’t about furniture. What matters is designing experiences where employees actively work together to solve challenges together. Immersive venues know this: people bond when they co-create. When work feels participatory and the teams come together to tackle problems and build something collectively, it creates deeper trust and stronger bonds. That sense of shared experience is what drives belonging.
Seamless, Integrated Experiences
Another hallmark of immersive design today is the merging of physical and digital. We’re living in what’s often called the “phygital” world, where boundaries blur.
Interdisciplinary art collective TeamLab’s immersive art installation is a prime example. They merge digital projection, natural elements, and human interaction into a seamless experience. The boundaries disappear between physical or digital. As a visitor, you’re not thinking about whether it’s physical or digital. You’re simply immersed in one seamless experience.
That seamlessness is exactly what the workplace needs. Today, employees constantly toggle between Zoom calls, chat platforms, and in-person meetings. But too often, those experiences feel disjointed. The challenge for workplace design is to remove the friction and make those transitions effortless, so digital and physical collaboration feel like part of one continuous, integrated experience.
Transformation: Transporting to a New World
Perhaps one of the most powerful qualities of immersive experience is the ability to transform us. You step into a new world, and you leave changed. Recent popularity of immersive wellness venues or immersive art installations are great examples of this transformation.
Workplaces don’t need to mimic theme parks or art installations, but they can still spark transformation. Curiosity, discovery, joy, and inspiration should be built into everyday work experience. Stepping into the office should feel like stepping into a space that helps you reset, ready to learn, collaborate, and contribute to a larger shared mission with fresh perspective. Transformation also connects back to story and hero’s journey. When employees see themselves as part of the company’s narrative, as heroes working toward a shared goal, the workplace becomes more than a backdrop, but a catalyst for transformation and change.
Bringing Immersive Experience to the Future of Work
It’s easy to think of immersive experience as entertainment or something extravagant, separated from the serious, professional world of work. But the truth is, it’s all about humans, and people crave the same things. The same brain that delights in solving a puzzle at an immersive museum is the one solving the work challenges the next day. That same person craves connection, belonging, joy, and meaning in everyday work.
By learning from immersive experiences — storytelling, multisensory engagement, emotional resonance, personalization, participation, seamless integration, and transformation — we can create engaging workplaces that people actually look forward to coming in every day. This isn’t about making work more entertaining. It’s about making it more human. And in the workplace of the future, that may be the most powerful experience of all.