As Jeremy Zawodny posted back in October “A Large Monitor Makes You More Productive” and I’ve felt this way for quite some time. I don’t understand companies that don’t give their developers larger screens or dual displays. The average cost of displays is falling, the sizes are getting bigger yet we still have companies shelling out a single 17″ monitor to designers and developers.
I won’t have to go far to find a web developer to hear that it’s essential to have a minimum of 2 or three browsers open (IE 6, IE 5.5, Mozilla, FireFox, Opera… take your pick) plus their code. Fitting two or three visible and useful-sized windows open on a single 17″ is just not possible unless you wish to go blind with a crazy resolution.
Now, take the daily cost of having inefficient employees coupled with unhappy ones. You’re likely driving motivation down. What is the cost of this? Now take that 17″ display and upgrade it to dual 17′s or better yet a single 20″ or 24″ wide screen. IMO, the one-time cost is minimal and well worth it compared with the improved efficiency and happiness of your prized designers and developers.
I for one have found this 24″ display on my desk is huge – not just in size but also in permitting me to function properly.
Don’t agree, read “Meet the Life Hackers”
On the bigger screen, people completed the tasks at least 10 percent more quickly – and some as much as 44 percent more quickly. They were also more likely to remember the seven-digit number, which showed that the multitasking was clearly less taxing on their brains. Some of the volunteers were so enthralled with the huge screen that they begged to take it home. In two decades of research, Czerwinski had never seen a single tweak to a computer system so significantly improve a user’s productivity. The clearer your screen, she found, the calmer your mind.