Dual Monitors – Why Everyone Should Have Them
Dual Monitors are Better than One
Over the years I’ve seen a lot of things in the tech industry change. Most things have gotten bigger, faster and cheaper, but those changes rarely result in increased productivity. The biggest exception is in the use of dual monitors. I believe that utilizing two monitors on every desk is the best return on investment a business can make.
An example of a setup with dual monitors
Many offices look at a computer with two monitors and think of it as excessive or “nerdy.” I can tell you, both from my career and personal experience, there is no more cost effective way to boost productivity than to add a second monitor to someone’s computer. For under $200, often under $150, you can make someone far more efficient. A minimum wage employee will pay for the increased productivity in a matter of a few months. Employees that bill out at high service rates can see a return on the investment in as little as a week.
What sort of productivity improvements do people see in dual monitor setups? Many workers need multiple programs open at once, and dual monitors keep them from having to switch between programs. Anyone that needs to transfer information from one program to another (manually) will see a tremendous improvement in their time usage. For folks with Windows 7, by combining the Snap feature with dual monitors you have four work-spaces. That’s the setup I have at home and it’s very helpful.
You don’t have to stop at two, though. We have some clients, especially those in financial services and accounting industries, that use three or even four monitors at a single workstation. Not only does this help further their productivity, it’s very impressive when working with clients. Remember, we’re always marketing, even to our existing customers. Don’t underestimate the power of looking impressive.
Jeremy, why not one very big flat screen TV. No breaks that way.
There are a few reasons. First is cost – the cost of 2 x 19″ monitors is far less expensive than the cost of something in the mid 20″s.
Functionality – It’s easier to rearrange windows amongst multiple monitors than to do it with a single large one. All window managers I’ve worked with make it easy to “maximize” a window… but you can’t do that with a single monitor.
Lastly, redundancy. Should one of my monitors fail, I can still do work. If I only one have one monitor…
Do you use a single large one? What are the advantages you see?
I have two monitors where I work, but I imagine it as a stop gap until the price of the big ones come down. Also with Citrix XEN 5, the driver doesn’t allow for 2 monitors when XENning to a physical box. You can with XEN 3.x. I think Citrix is expecting everyone to XEN to virtual machines and the physical is an afterthought.