Design Immersion

Sit back... relax... put your feet up... and think about the last time you become completely absorbed by a great book, movie, or even video game. Recall if you will the surprise you felt when you suddenly realized that two, three, or even four hours or more had passed by so easily. That time when you could swear that you had only been experiencing fifteen or twenty minutes at the most, right?

You were actively immersed in whatever it is you were doing at the time. Obviously you know this as well as I do that when you become completely "sucked in" to something, you lose time. What you might not be completely aware of is the details of what's going on in your head.

Wikipedia helps clarify this effect by mentioning five different categories of immersion:

Types of immersion

According to Ernest Adams, author and consulter on game design, immersion can be separated into three main categories:

Tactical immersion

Tactical immersion is experienced while performing tactile operations that involve skill. Players feel "in the zone" when perfecting actions that result in success.

Strategic immersion

Strategic immersion is more cerebral, and is associated with mental challenge. Chess players experience strategic immersion when choosing a correct solution among a broad array of possibilities.

Narrative immersion

Narrative immersion occurs when players become invested in a story, and is similar to what is experienced while reading a book or watching a movie.

Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen, in Patterns In Game Design, divide immersion into similar categories, but call them sensory-motoric immersion, cognitive immersion and emotional immersion, respectively. In addition, they add two new categories:

Spatial immersion

Spatial immersion occurs when a player feels the simulated world is perceptually convincing. The player feels that he or she is really "there" and that a simulated world looks and feels "real".

Psychological immersion

Psychological immersion occurs when a player confuses the game with real life.

I think there's something missing here though. Think back to that immersive feeling for a moment. Have you ever experienced it while working as a designer? When you have a mockup open on the computer and the fire of creating shuts out the entire world around you?

This is where design immersion comes in.

Design immersion occurs when a creative designer or artist becomes completely focused on the product of their own creativity, blocking out everything else until they are content with the results.

I've noticed that my absolute best work comes from when I hit this level of intensity. I'm also beginning to believe that you cannot be a better designer until you learn how to shut out the world and hit this peak.

So with that, let's talk about your job (if you work in a creative field). Can you say with absolute honestly that your current job allows you hit your personal immersive stage? If not, why?

What can you do to ensure that you're coming up with the best work that your income is reliant on? If finding design immersion is impossible, then perhaps it's time to find a new job, because what you're doing now is a disservice to your own potential to become better. Without immersion, your creativity will remain mediocre.