Creating Immersive Visitor Experiences

Producing immersive environments can be great fun, from recreations of period-specific street scenes, through to hidden laboratories and 'top secret' interactive game zones. 


Qualia has an exceptional reputation for creating immersive environments that are accessible, visitor-friendly and inspirational. The following projects are from Edinburgh, Taipei, Bradford and Barbados. They illustrate how theatricality, playfulness and a sense of wonder can help to shape the most enjoyable visitor experiences.


Qualia's Creative Approach to Immersive Experience Design
Qualia has worked very closely with one of its commercial clients on the development of several escape rooms for the Middle East leisure market. The timed challenges involved keeping calm under pressure and finding the cryptic clues hidden within the rooms in order to escape to safety.

The conceptual approach involved creating visual and tactile themes for each immersive room experience. Using these themes, the project team generated a series of game play options based on the skill levels and sizes of visiting groups.


Warning! Time is limited to just one hour and the clues are not easy! 


Fight for the Castle, Edinburgh Castle

Opened 2019


The £335,000 'Fight for the Castle' exhibition tells the story of how Edinburgh Castle was held under siege many times between 1286 - 1356, making it the 'most besieged in Britain'.  A large-scale sculptural trebuchet installation adds to the sense of immersion within the Castle's story. This is counter-played with projected images and animations from every direction.

The theatrical audiovisual experiences are enhanced by the use of real historical objects set within cases that integrate with a simple yet highly informative pictorial timeline.


The whole experience is designed for a multinational audience and creates a strong impression while remaining rich in content and historical value.

All images of the site and exhibition used by kind permission of Historic Environment Scotland. 



The Historic Environment Scotland team of content and interpretation specialists were inspirational to work with on this project. 


See Historic Environment Scotland's Fight for the Castle video clips here:
 
 

The Fight for the Castle case study page gives an informative view of the design process, from working with Historic Environment Scotland's in-house project team on developing a seamless conceptual approach, through to detailed design development and project delivery.  
 
 

The core team that created Fight for the Castle were:



Historic Environment Scotland - Interpretation and Content Research


Qualia Limited - 3D Exhibition Design, from Concept to Completion


Matt Johnson - Freelance Project Management

KSLD - Lighting Design and Installation

Splintr - Exhibition Fit-Out Contractor


Ay-Pe - Audio-visual and Immersive Media Specialists


Immersive Science and Experiential Learning

These concepts, produced recently for the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, prove that by taking an immersive approach, interactive science can be both beautiful and engaging. 


Immersive Play for the Home

The following games room was designed by Qualia Limited in collaboration with its industry colleagues AIVAF Limited. The team has developed a series of dedicated entertainment rooms for the domestic market using commercial grade audiovisual and interactive media.

 
 

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