Zuyd Hogeschool

Towards a Common Language for Immersive Experiences: a Cross-Sector Exploration of Concepts and Measurement

The immersive industry is rapidly expanding across sectors, formats, and technologies. However, this growth has resulted in a highly diverse and fragmented landscape in which creators, venues, and producers operate with different assumptions and vocabularies. No universally accepted definition of immersion exists, nor is there a clear hierarchy among related concepts such as presence, engagement, and flow that are relevant to immersive experiences. Distinct “use themes” also emerge and overlap across sector without a coherent theoretical or terminological foundation. This fragmentation complicates collaboration, slows innovation, and limits the transfer of insights and technologies across domains, which dampens the potential to scale existing use cases to realize their full impact potential. The National Growth Fund programme CIIIC positions immersive experiences (IX) as a catalyst for innovation and societal value creation. Achieving this ambition requires a shared language and conceptual foundation . This project addresses this need by exploring and synthesising existing knowledge, infrastructure and use cases across domains to constitute a common cross-sectoral conceptual understanding and framework of IX. To ensure meaningful comparison, the project focuses on domains where IX function as intentional experiential interventions rather than purely technical demonstrations. The project consists of three components: (1) mapping how IX are defined, applied, and studied across fields through exploratory interviews; (2) conducting co-creation sessions with creators, academics, contextual partners and societal stakeholders to identify shared terminology and develop a conceptual framework; and (3) exploring suitable methods for measuring IX quality and societal impact, including conditions for responsible use. The project will deliver a shared conceptual framework, guidelines for responsible IX evaluation, and an incubator for establishing a sustainable IX stakeholder network. These outcomes will strengthen the Dutch IX ecosystem and lay the foundation that aims to shift resources from largely small-scale fragmented exploratory initiatives towards scaling IX interventions for societal impact.