Model Canvases for Experience Design: A Practical Toolkit for Designing Location-Based and Immersive Experiences
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how we develop ideas for location-based, immersive and experiential media projects. Not just how we come up with the initial concept, but how we hold that concept steady enough for a team to work with it, test it, question it, and then keep returning to it as the project develops.
Most people working in business, entrepreneurship or innovation will be familiar with the Business Model Canvas, developed by Strategyzer. It is one of those deceptively simple tools that has travelled far beyond its original context. At one level, it is just a one-page grid. At another level, it gives people a shared language for thinking through how an idea works as a system: who it is for, what value it creates, how it reaches people, what resources it needs, who needs to be involved, and how it becomes sustainable.
What interests me is not simply the business planning side of this, but the way the canvas works as a conversational tool. It gives a group of people something to point at. It makes assumptions visible. It stops ideas floating around in the abstract and forces them into relation with one another.
I was reminded of this recently when Anna Monte, partner and co-founder of Delta Soundworks, shared the Sound Model Canvas with me. Their version takes the general logic of the canvas and adapts it for spatial audio and immersive sound practice. It asks people to think about emotional impact, sonic references, playback format, spatial behaviour, interaction style, sound layers, listener profile and technical constraints. I found it really useful because it showed how the canvas format could be adapted for a specific creative and technical field without becoming overcomplicated.
That got me thinking about whether a similar approach could be useful for location-based experiences more generally.
By location-based experiences, I mean designed experiences that audiences have to physically go somewhere to encounter. That might include immersive theatre, VR attractions, audio walks, heritage experiences, museum installations, escape rooms, mixed reality projects, live cinema, themed environments, experiential retail, projection-mapped installations, or site-specific performance. The defining feature is that the experience is anchored in place. The site is not just a container for the work; it is part of the design problem.
So I have started developing a small set of model canvases for different kinds of location-based and immersive experience design. These are not intended to be definitive. They are working tools. The idea is to help students, artists, producers, researchers and creative teams get an early handle on the structure of an experience before they rush too quickly into format, technology or content.
The first is a General LBE Model Canvas. This is designed as a broad ideation tool for location-based experiences. It asks questions about the experience proposition, audience profile, audience journey, storyworld, interaction, spatial design, sensory and media layers, operations, partners, value and outcomes.
I have also developed more specific versions for location-based VR, transmedia experience stories, audio walks, museum and heritage experiences, and XR experiences. Each one keeps the same basic canvas structure, but changes the language so that the prompts are more appropriate to the form. For example, the LBVR version foregrounds headset onboarding, physical play space, tracking area, embodiment, player agency and VR operations. The audio walk version focuses more on route, place, listening frame, wayfinding and mobility. The museum and heritage version is framed around interpretation, collections, visitor flow, access, community voice and cultural value.
What I like about this approach is that the canvas can be used in several different ways.
At the beginning of a project, it works as an ideation tool. It helps a group quickly sketch out what they think the experience is, who it is for, how people will encounter it, what kinds of interaction it might involve, what partners or resources are needed, and what would count as success.
In teaching, I think it can also work as a reflective tool. Students can complete the canvas early in a session or project, then return to it later and ask: what would we change now? What have we learned that challenges our first assumptions? Which part of the model has become clearer? Which part now feels weak? This is where the canvas becomes more than a worksheet. It becomes a way of tracking learning.
In live project scenarios, it can also help students prepare better questions for clients or community partners. Instead of asking vague questions like “what do you want?”, they can use the canvas to identify specific unknowns. Who is the experience really for? What should the audience feel or do? What is the role of the site? What are the operational constraints? What kind of value does the partner actually need the project to create?
Used in this way, the canvas becomes a project tracking tool. It can be updated at different stages of development and used to structure reviews. At each stage, the team can ask what has changed, what has been validated, what remains uncertain, and what needs to be tested next. That makes it useful not only for creative development, but also for agile project management.
I am not suggesting that a canvas can solve the complexity of immersive or location-based experience design. Of course it cannot. These projects are messy, situated, collaborative and often dependent on things that only become clear once people are in the space, working with real audiences, real technologies and real constraints.
But that is also why tools like this can be helpful. They do not replace creative judgement. They create a shared surface for discussion. They help a team notice what they have not yet thought about. They give students and collaborators a practical way to move between idea, design, delivery and reflection.
I am sharing these as working drafts, and I expect they will continue to change as I use them. I am especially interested in how they might work in teaching, live briefs, creative residencies, research projects and early-stage production meetings.
You can download the canvases here:
[Location-Based VR Model Canvas]
[Transmedia Experience Story Model Canvas]
[Museum / Heritage Model Canvas]
You can also find the Delta Soundworks Sound Model Canvas here:
[Delta Soundworks Sound Model Canvas]
Many thanks to Anna Monte and Delta Soundworks for the inspiration. Their Sound Model Canvas helped me see how useful this format could be when adapted to specific areas of immersive and experiential practice.
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