Multiexperience: Core principles grounded in experience theory, theory of embodied cognition, and schema theory
Sahil Dua, Weng Marc Lim, Shilpi Jain, Varsha Khattri · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · 2026
Multiexperience (MX) describes users’ perceptions and responses when an interactive system distributes activity across multiple devices and modalities. User experience (UX) explains local user-system interaction quality, whereas customer experience (CX) explains customer responses across touchpoints and journeys. MX addresses the coordination quality between these levels, which, in turn, clarifies whether linked interactions across devices and modalities become coherent or create friction. This research develops a 6C MX framework grounded in experience theory, embodied cognition, and schema theory. Evidence comes from open-ended questionnaires with 35 users (Study 1), semi-structured interviews with 15 experts (Study 2), and 150,000 online reviews (Study 3). The findings show that MX is shaped by six core principles, which are convenience , customization , complementarity , continuity , consistency , and context . These principles explain how multi-device systems can reduce effort, preserve flow, enable cross-device control, support task resumption, reinforce familiar schemas, and adapt to situated use. The framework, therefore, advances omnichannel experience research by clarifying how device-modality coordination can strengthen UX and CX across digital ecosystems.