Track: Human Factors and Ergonomics

Abstract

Posture has an important role in mobility, breathing, muscle efficiency, and injury prevention for any human activity, including console gaming. Proper posture allows players to minimize the work muscles need to exert while playing, thus allowing them to play for longer durations of time without much discomfort. One of the key features of proper posture is correct positioning of the shoulder blades, which is affected by the position of the thoracic spine. This study involves the construction of an ergonomic console chair dedicated to a specific demographic in order to improve the posture and comfort that players experience while playing, with its dimensions being based specifically on the average Filipino male workers body measurements. One design the researchers proposed incorporated an underarm support system meant to guide the shoulder blades into proper position, thus overall improving the user’s posture. To further test the effects of using this ergonomic chair, it was compared to that of an ordinary non-ergonomic chair, in terms of its effects on the user’s comfort and performance. Prior observation in a local gaming shop was done to study what posture related problems players experienced while playing. In addition, both a preexperiment and a post-experiment survey were conducted to test the chair’s effect on the user’s comfort and experience. The experiment proper had participants play two gaming sessions on each chair, with the variable in question being the scores each player attained per session. After gathering all necessary data, various statistical tools were used to determine the chair’s effectiveness. Based on the statistics, the ergonomic console chair has proved to be effective in improving a user’s experience and performance.