Immersive website
An immersive website is a site the visitor moves through rather than reads.
Also known as: immersive site · experience-led website · 3D experience site
On an ordinary site the content sits still and the visitor scrolls to read it. On an immersive site the content opens up as the visitor moves: it can be a three-dimensional scene turning in the browser, a story that advances as you scroll, or a space you walk through with a camera. In practice the term is used interchangeably with 3D website.
Technically most of these sites are built on WebGL, usually with Three.js. From the visitor’s point of view the most important property is this: no install, no plugin, no app download — following the link is enough. That is the basic difference between an immersive website and an application downloaded from a store.
The home page of this site is an example: a 360-degree studio tour that turns as you scroll.
When to use it
When it makes sense
When what you have to describe is a place, a product or a process; and when the time a visitor spends on the site has value for you.
When it is unnecessary
When the visitor’s job is to find information quickly and leave. A hospital’s appointment page or a bank’s branch list should not be immersive; there, spectacle is an obstacle.
How it looked in our work
The home page of this site is an immersive website: a 360-degree studio tour that turns as you scroll. 3DCBH is the game side of the same idea — a multiplayer world that opens in the browser and needs no install.
Common questions
Does an immersive site work on a phone?
Yes. Every modern phone supports WebGL. But the scene has to be prepared separately for mobile: fewer polygons, smaller textures, interaction rethought for touch. Handing the same scene to a phone unchanged produces a slow experience that heats the device.
Do immersive sites appear in search engines?
Not by themselves — this is a known problem. Because the text is drawn inside the WebGL scene, a search engine cannot read it. The solution is to produce real HTML on the server independently of the scene and to add structured data.
How does this term apply to your work? Let us talk.
Get in touch