A mock-up isn’t enough. Immersive Design is what transforms a space.
I’m seeing lots of construction happening in healthcare right now yet I worry many of these builds will happen without the immersive design process. Too often we build clinical mock-ups, walk through them, nod in agreement and then start building.
But a static mock-up is not the same as immersive design.
Immersive design means more than just looking at a space. It means using the space before it’s built. At Advanced Performance we create the mock-up and then run simulations: real clinicians performing real workflows, managing real clinical scenarios.
We observe. We listen. We debrief.
And most importantly we find things we’d never see in a blueprint or until the build is complete.
For example, during the design of a new operating room, we ran a simulated surgery with nurses, surgeons and anesthesia. Within 15 minutes, we discovered:
1. The overhead boom wasn’t properly positioned within the room for the surgeon to operate on either side of the patient.
2. The location of the anesthetic machine prevented the stretcher from being moved into the OR.
3. The sterile field was regularly breached because the equipment carts were in the way.
None of these problems were caught during the initial design phase. All of them were discovered because the team had to do the work.
That’s the power of immersive design.
This process helps teams prevent costly mistakes, optimize flow, and build environments that support better care—not just prettier floor plans. As we design clinical spaces we should be asking ourselves, are we just building a model—or are we testing it with the people who will actually use it?
This is how at Advanced Performance we think about designing healthcare for the future.
