The double-edged sword of phygital technologies: how phygital overload shapes museum experience and evaluation through visitor review insights

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how phygital tools – technologies that blend physical and digital elements – shape visitors’ museum experiences and evaluations in online reviews. Specifically, the authors investigate the counterintuitive effect by which mentions of distinct phygital tools (i.e. phygital tool variety) are negatively associated with star ratings, such that a higher number of mentions corresponds to lower evaluations. To explain this pattern, they introduce the concept of phygital overload and analyze how the narrative salience of these tools moderates this relationship. By doing so, the study provides new insights into the boundaries of phygital augmentation and its implications for designing human-centered, emotionally coherent visitor experiences in cultural service environments. Design/methodology/approach Using a case study of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, the authors analyze 6,883 user reviews from Google Reviews. A lexicon-based content analysis identifies and quantifies mentions of distinct phygital tools within each review. They use regression models to test the direct, mediated and moderating effects of phygital tool variety on star ratings, with perceived quality of the museum experience – proxied by joy-related affect-related emotions in reviews – serving as the mediating variable. In particular, they explore how phygital narrative salience – the proportion of review text dedicated to phygital tools – moderates the link between these mentions and visitor evaluations, both directly and indirectly through perceived experiential quality. Findings Results reveal that while phygital tool variety mentioned in visitor reviews does not directly influence reported joy-related affect, it exerts a negative indirect effect on museum evaluations through its dampening influence on joy-related affect. As joy-related affect serves as an indicator of perceived experience quality, these findings support the phygital overload hypothesis, underscoring the emotional cost of encountering numerous and diverse phygital tools. This mediated relationship is further amplified when a greater proportion of review content is devoted to describing these tools – a dimension the authors term phygital narrative salience. Under such conditions, heightened focus on phygital variety appears to intensify emotional strain, leading to reduced joy-related affect and, ultimately, lower overall evaluations of the museum experience. Originality/value This study introduces and empirically tests the construct of phygital overload in a cultural experience context. It extends Cognitive Load Theory to online evaluation and highlights the importance of narrative salience in moderating the effects of phygital augmentation on visitor experience and evaluation.