Multiple Monitors

[mike214]

Hi,

My employer is considering introducing going to 2 or 3 monitors for each of our computers to help productivity - please can you advise if any of you use multiple monitors in your workplace and if so, how beneficial you think they are.

Thanks!

 

[Copen]

I have a laptop (with stand) and a fixed larger monitor side by side. Obviously the laptop is good for trips.

2 monitors is useful: to work on one monitor whilst refering to or typing up an email as I go along on the other monitor, or to work in two spreadsheets / models simultaneously.

e.g.
copy data from one excel spreadsheet to another
compare previous version / current version
1 scenario vs another
working with linked spreadsheets

Would definitely recommend 2 as I think I work faster, but it depends on the type of work you do. Only seen people with 3 monitors in banks

 

[Calum]

Put it this way. A flat screen monitor, if you buy one for everyone in your office, is on the order of £120. An actuary is getting paid £30k+ at minimum.

120/30000 = 0.4%

The question, then, is will a second monitor increase your productivity by more than 0.4%? This depends, of course, on your workload and so on, but studies have shown that increases of 20-30% in productivity are quite normal.

If there's any dispute about it, run a pilot with a few people and then see if you can take the monitors back off them....

 

[mike214]

Thanks for your help guys.

I figured I would get answers like this and I agree that they are likely to be very cost effective but there is quite a resistance to the idea unfortunately (my managers don't see how they will be beneficial) so I will try to push for a trial

 

[Calum]

Here's one study:

http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/64317/interact2003-productivitylargedisplays.pdf

There hasn't been a huge amount of proper research on this issue, but what there is all points to the positive.

Obviously, it goes without saying that your managers should be included in the trial. If they spend any amount of time at the keyboard they will see the light themselves pretty quickly

 

[mattt78]

multiscreen

if it increases you're productivity by more than 20% i'd have thought you must have been doing something seriously inefficient beforehand!

i'm definitely a fan of having 2 screens though - if you're likely to be working with more than a couple of files/applications most of the time, or running models on remote machines etc, they'll definietly be a help.