A Usability and Workload Investigation: Using Video Games to Compare Two Virtual Reality Systems

Abstract

Comparison of the effectiveness and user perception of different commercial Virtual Reality (VR) systems for similar locomotion tasks is lacking. This gap is filled in the present paper by comparing two VR systems: the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Three game scenarios of increasing elaboration served as the basis for comparative measures: objective performance and subjective questionnaires (i.e., usability and workload). The between-subjects differences showed the Rift had higher subjective ease of use; an ergonomic recommendation is thus given. The within-subjects differences showed scenario workload differences within both the Rift and Vive. A trend of nonsignificant change in workload between scenarios 1 and scenarios 2 suggests using scenario 1 as a tutorial; a significant change in workload between scenarios 2 and 3 might relate to a lack of competency, signal certainty, scaffolding, and boredom. A higher-workload scenario may be added after scenario 3 in future studies.