Dual 24″ Monitors
I’m working on a justification for capable developer machines including dual 24″ monitors. It occurred to me that I needed a simple test to define the problem.
def test_two_24_inch_monitors_are_cost_effective baseline_productivity = developer.productivity_in_hours_per_year developer.add_monitor(24_inch_monitor) developer.add_monitor(24_inch_monitor) productivity_gain = developer.productivity_in_hours_per_year - baseline_productivity assert(productivity_gain * 50_dollars_per_hour > cost_of_two_monitors) end
So with two 24″ monitors running say $800 I need to show just a 16+ hour increase to justify the increased productivity in a single year. To make the math easy with say 1600 hours available a year, we’re talking about just a 1% productivity gain. Given a recent study showing 20%+ gains this should be an easy test to turn green.
Very interesting Ed, please keep us updated what happens when you release this test into the wild.
I received a 24″ widescreen from my wife about 2 years ago as a gift and immediately noticed improved productivity when programming at home. I managed to convince my superiors to outfit our team.
Most modern IDEs love screen space. Visual Studio’s toolbox and property viewer are almost essential to leave open yet doing so leaves very little room for the actual document. A wide-screen monitor fixes this problem. 24″ models provide enough space to view two 8.5×11″ pages at 100%. The benefits are immediately noticeable and worth the $$$ if you can afford it.
I wouldnt be able to cope without a dual monitor setup (2 x 22inch widescreens).
Need to have one to switch between pc and console/test pc (game development), along with needing 8 different databases (bug and test DB’s), email, browser, and IM. i can say for sure 20% productivity (at least) increase is true (along with using a multimonitor program like Ultramon allowing you to quickly move windows from monitor to monitor). my brain is suffering a bit though, i think i’m heading for burn out with keeping track of everything!
I’m still trying to figure out how to get a 30″ external for home, but I’m making do with a 17″ Macbook Pro for now.
Next step I’ll see how it goes through the procurement process. I figure we might end up with 2 22″ screens as well which is a bit of a compromise, but a step in the right direction.
I recently switched from using a 14″ laptop screen to dual screen with a 19″ and a 22″. I can attest to the 20% productivity increase, especially when working with eclipse. Less than 19″ is just not enough for most IDEs.
20% makes the ROI argument work out very quickly.