Actual Productivity Gains from Multiple Monitors

Question

I see a lot of posts from people talking about how they cannot possibly live without two, three or 13 1/2 monitors but does anybody have an actual metrics or statistics which I could use as ammunition? Same question for comfortable chairs. The company for which I work right now is looking at buying chairs but will buy bargain basement chairs without some evidence supporting better chairs.

Answer 1

Jeff actually has a good article on this

Answer 2

Also see

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/monitors

(I just retagged a few so they're organized)

Answer 3

I think having multiple monitors is cool and all. But I am kind of skeptical that it actually provides much productivity gains. Alt-Tab and the taskbar already make it pretty easy to swap between windows. Can also setup shortcuts to swap to certain windows. One thing I see multiple monitors buying you is that its easier to move the mouse to the window you want to work on instead of using alt-tab/taskbar/keyboard shortcuts.

I'm currently running two monitors at work and I find I can only focus on one monitor at a time. And I have to turn my head to focus on the second monitor. So I tend to move stuff that could of just stayed in the background to the extra monitor.

EDIT: I agree with lomaxx. The biggest advantage I have found so far with dual monitors is when I need to reference data and a single monitor is not big enough to display both windows at once.

EDIT: I found Jeff has written about this. That is having to deal with more complex window management when you have more screen estate.

Answer 4

My scenario is:

Monitor 1: Visual Studio
Monitor 2: SQL Manager, actual application, web browser

In this case, yes, two monitors not only boosts my productivity, but I would say it's boosted by a factor of four or more, in several cases: debugging, writing ORM mappings, modifying UI, etc.

I think some people take it to an extreme. Three monitors probably doesn't get you much more; more than three is a waste of money. But I've tried doing my normal routine with just one monitor (when I bring my work laptop home with me), and I find myself moving MUCH slower when I can't have a view of data I need to see available while I'm coding.

Answer 5

The benefit of multiple monitors is being able to see stuff at the same time. My typical scenario is to have on one monitor something that I am actively working on and on the other some reference material (ie. help file, knowledge base, web site, specs, etc.). The 2nd monitor is extremely useful when debugging. Run the app on one monitor and debug on the other. You can also switch the res on one monitor to test your app (or web page) at different resolutions.

I've known many people that don't see the need for two monitors. I don't know anybody that likes one monitor after using two.

Answer 6

@grom: The biggest advantage I find from having multiple monitors is when I'm referencing data from the second monitor for use on my main monitor. You'd be surprised how often you do this sort of interaction between two windows and having the second monitor is invaluable.

For example I might be reading an article that provides a code sample on the secondary monitor and implementing that code on the first monitor. If I have to alt + tab between the two I find I lose my flow.

Answer 7

Yaakov Ellis posted some great links in an answer to a similar question:

Point him to one of these:

1. Dual Monitors Increase Productivity (LifeHacker)
2. Two Screens are Better than One (MS Research)
3. The Virtues of a Second Screen (NY Times)
4. Bigger Computer Monitors = More Productivity (WSJ)
5. Enhance Your Productivity with Multiple Monitors (WebWorkerDaily)

Keep the discussion centered on his Return on Investment and free increase in productivity.

Answer 8

In addition to any raw productivity benefits of multiple monitors, I think there is a definite "comfort" factor to having plentiful screen real estate available, which is appreciated by developers.

The second part of the question, dealing with chairs, actually provides a pretty good analogy for the question of the benefit of multi-monitor setups. Could a good programmer sit every day at their desk on a hard wooden stool and be reasonably productive? In theory, sure. But would they put up with it for long?

Coding on, say, a single 14-inch (35.6 cm) monitor might be compared to coding while sitting on a hard wooden stool, whereas coding on a nice multi-monitor setup is like coding while sitting in a luxury office chair.

It seems reasonable to conclude that by providing a monitor setup that developers appreciate, employers can positively impact morale and reduce attrition -- just like employers do when they provide their employees with decent office chairs to sit on instead of wooden stools.

Answer 9

UI/paint debugging is definitely easier with multiple monitors. That way you can have your app running on one monitor and the debugger full screen on the other without worrying about switching back and forth and causing repaints.

I also like having email/calendar/messenger on the secondary monitor off to the side while i work on my primary monitor.

Answer 10

The reason I don't like tabbed browsing is the same reason I love my dual monitors. As people pointed out, being able to see two browser windows (or anything else really) at a time without performing crazy mouse acrobatics to resize them is something I make use of at least 5 times a day (and I can count remember them if you want to quiz me). The alternative of having to alt-tab to swap windows every 3 seconds is something I could never go back to. I'm reminded of this fact everytime I use my Macbook Pro.

Answer 11

For what it's worth, we had a vacancy and some unused monitors, so a colleague of mine decided to upgrade to three monitors. Then, just for fun, he upgraded to four, all side-by-side. The third one was quite useful and he's still using it. The fourth one proved to be a distraction and actually hindered productivity. Now, if he had been able to stack it above the center monitor, I believe that it would have perhaps given a slight gain in productivity. But according to our very non-scientific experiment, three seems to be optimal, provided they are 22" LCDs from Dell.

Of course, it depends on what industry you're in, what you're actually doing with those monitors...

Answer 12

If you have to choose between an extra screen or a chair, pick the chair.

Having just one screen means you still can work (it's not the end of the world), but a bad chair can ruin your everyday mood and, in longer term, your health.

Answer 13

I'm all in favor of coders having the option of using two (or more) company-provided monitors.

However, between us coders, I really don't think it makes a huge difference. I worked for about a year with 3 1/2 (1/2 = laptop) monitors, and a while ago switched down to 1 1/2 as an experiment. I don't feel much difference at all.

I've seen long email discussions and various posts at my company, and the best performing people often use a single monitor.

Does Tiger Woods win because of his golf clubs? Nice tools are convenient, but they make negligible contributions compared to the raw abilities of the coder and the general work environment.

Answer 14

Having worked with three to six monitors, I'd say the usual scenarios where multiple monitors help are as follows:

• Diffing and merging (each side has its own screen -- no need for horizontal scroll),

• Displaying build output, errors/warnings, search results, debugger, looking at examples, without hiding the code,

• Monitoring mail/IM/shell execution progress just by shifting your gaze but only when necessary (no need for annoying notifications -- peripheral vision is cool for this!),

• Turning one or more monitors into views into other machines (VNC/Remote Desktop).

Answer 15

I know this is late to the table, but FWIW, I have had dual monitors for about a month now and I honestly cannot see any real productivity improvement at all over 1. I would take a single very large high res monitor over two lower res monitors any day of the week.

EDIT: So a few months year now with multiple monitors, and there are minor advantages, the most significant of which is having API documentation, email and/or a browser open on one monitor while coding on the other. But I still wouldn't trade, for example, my wide screen 26" 1920x1200 monitor for two 19" 1024x768 monitors.