Thomas OtterThere has been some discussion here in Gartner about monitors and productivity for developers and knowledge workers.
Many of us work from home, and several have multi-monitor set ups. This is Mark’s set up.
Here is mine. I’m feeling a tad inadequate. A mere 22"wide screen monitor and my T61 notebook screen.
Depending on what I’m doing I often split the display across the two monitors. For instance, I may have Powerpoint on one and mail on the other.
If you head over to the developer blogs it is clear that dual monitors and bigger monitors are much loved , as Jeff Attwood noted back in 2004. And Joel Spolsky says,
Debugging GUI code with a single monitor system is painful if not impossible. If you’re writing GUI code, two monitors will make things much easier.
and
Top notch development teams don’t torture their programmers. Even minor frustrations caused by using underpowered tools add up, making programmers grumpy and unhappy. And a grumpy programmer is an unproductive programmer.
To add to all this… programmers are easily bribed by giving them the coolest, latest stuff. This is a far cheaper way to get them to work for you than actually paying competitive salaries!
Joel’s post on office layout and developer workspace is well worth reading. I’m not an expert in this stuff, but buying people that sit in chairs and stare at screens all day the best screens and chairs instinctively makes sense, but I’ll leave the more detailed assessment of the ROI thereof to my colleagues in the high performance workplace research group. Joel notes.
Desks designed for programming. Long, straight desks include a motorized height-adjustable work surface for maximal ergonomics and comfort, and so you can stand up for part of the day if you want. Standard 30” monitors. Desks are straight instead of L-shaped to make pair programming and code reviews more comfortable. There are 20 electrical outlets behind every desk and most developers have small hubs for extra computers. Our standard-issue chair is the Herman Miller Aeron. Those guest chairs are the famous Series 7 by Arne Jacobson. The pedestal storage is on wheels and incorporates a cushion-top for additional guest seating.
It certainly looks great. (photo and quote from the Joel on Software blog.
My request
I have one caveat for developers and designers with big screens and ergonomic chairs that I’d like to raise here though.
When designing UIs for enterprise application users, don’t just do that on your fancy 360 degree swivel megacool gigahertzoid multipixel frequency self modulating flat screen 30” flicker-glare free hydromatic systematic automatic greased lightning monitor.
Get out that 7 year old 15" monitor, and a 13" laptop. See how your design works there.
All of you that have inputted travel expenses or leave forms on a laptop are nodding now.
Hands up if constantly scrolling down to find the currency field and the save button is user centric design.
Just because you, lucky developer have 30 inches of screen real estate, doesn’t mean those that use your application do.
(from the cc flickr pics of Robyn, thanks!)
Category: UI cost optimization software industry usability Tags: monitors, productivity
2 responses so far ↓
1 John Silberstein January 21, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Currently I have just one screen, but yearn for a second. In the past, I was an Operations Manager and worked extensively with Excel doing data management. I worked with two screens, this allowed to work on one screen with excel and have access to other data and applications on the other. Previous to using two screens, I would have to toggle constantly between windows which was distracting and annoying.
At that time I had a desktop at home which I had a 15″ and 19″ LCD screens attached. At home this was less helpful and more of a luxury.
All told, for all serious users, have two screens is a must.
2 survey software February 3, 2009 at 6:48 pm
i wish i had space for multiple monitors on my desk, but once seems to be enough for me. a nice luxury i would imagine, though.
-Jack