How physical–digital experiences are designed

Innovations in immersive systems technologies allow commercial experience providers to mix both digital and physical design components in offerings such as escape rooms or city tours, creating what we call a “physical–digital experience” that cuts across both physical and virtual realms. A multiple case study of four experience-economy providers was conducted to understand how such physical–digital experiences are designed. A theoretical model explains how the deliberate and interdependent design and combination of physical and digital activities creates a new and integrated experience that features spatiotemporal and social recombination, sensory enrichment, and cross-realm anchoring, which make a physical–digital experience more than just the sum of physical and digital experiential activities alone. This research draws attention to the dual constitution of physical–digital experience and contributes to the growing scholarly discourse on the role of physicality as anchor, nexus, and lever for digital innovation.

Subjects

Activity design

Design archaeology

Immersive systems

Physical–digital experiences

DDC Class

006: Special computer methods

Funding(s)

Projekt DEAL

Publication version

publishedVersion

Name

s12599-025-00956-0.pdf

Type

Main Article

Size

549.24 KB

Format

Adobe PDF

Options

How physical–digital experiences are designed