Development and Validation of Neuroscience-Based Human Factors and Ergonomic Assessment Methodologies for Measurement of the Impact of Seating System Design on Video Gameplay Performance

Abstract

With the rapid rise of eSports as a sports category, human factors/ergonomics testing and optimization of the video gameplay workstation set up is imperative to maximize video gamers’ performance, comfort, experience, health, and longevity. Video gameplay is known to be an exceedingly demanding physical and cognitive task. Medical conditions associated with extended video gameplay include repetitive motion/stress injuries, eye strain and related visual system distortion/damage, obesity, and depression. Improved workstation/seating design may help mitigate negative outcomes related to extended video gameplay. The MUS/Secretlab eSports Neuroscience-Based Human Factors Optimization Lab combines physical workstation configuration testing with live gameplay performance to allow detailed scientific analysis of the relationship between workstation design and game design attributes, as they impact longitudinal gameplay performance, user comfort, and subjective experience of users. The testing system enables tracking of critical human factors variables, with a focus on cognitive/physical workload, fatigue, skill acquisition, stress, and video gameplay performance.

Validation of the testing system focused on examining the impact of seating design on video gameplay performance and experience. Specifically, the validation testing included capture of 3D spatial tracking of seating system and gamer body (custom-developed in UNITY for each seating system tested), live video gameplay key performance indicators (KPIs), high-performance eye-tracking, micro-facial expression analysis (MFEA; i.e., emotional response elicitation), and subjective ratings of comfort, fatigue, satisfaction, visual design, and chair preference. The validation study demonstrated that seating system does impact gameplay performance and experience in critical and statistically significant ways. The validation study confirmed that an ergonomically optimized seating system can yield clear performance benefits in terms of video gaming key performance indicator metrics, objective chair motion and body motion variables, eye-tracking variables related to cognitive processing of gaming stimuli, as well as improved comfort and satisfaction with overall gaming experience for longer durations of play. The validation study also confirmed that the human factors testing methodologies utilized provide objective indication of the best performing seating design, as well as actionable insights for further optimization opportunities based on the robust gameplay performance and gaming experience data captured. The development of the MUS/Secretlab eSports Neuroscience-Based Human Factors Optimization Lab and results of the validation study suggest that there is opportunity for major advancements in seating design for video gameplay based on further human factors optimization testing.

Keywords: video games, human factors, ergonomics, seating design, chair design, gaming, neuroscience, research methodology, Secretlab, League of Legends