It seems that having a bigger computer monitor can make PC users become even more productive, as a recent study has shown. Researchers from the University of Utah tried to test just how quickly people performed certain PC tasks using different computer monitor sizes. The study included the use of an 18-inch monitor, a 24-inch monitor and two 20-inch monitors.

The said study had people do a number of the usual PC tasks such as editing documents and copying numbers between spreadsheets. People were assigned the order of the tasks and the monitor sizes used at random. The result of the study showed that people using the 24 inch computer monitor were able to complete their tasks 52 percent faster than those who used the 18-inch monitor. Even the ones using the 20-inch PC monitors were 44 percent faster than the people on the 18-inch model. But an added test of using 26-inch computer monitors saw a decline in productivity in people doing the same tasks.

Although the study may have shown that use of bigger computer monitors resulted in finishing tasks quicker, James Anderson, the professor heading the study, said that these results should be taken with a grain of salt. The study would have assumed workers doing tasks for eight hours non-stop, which is not usually the case. The study didn't also show that the quality of the tasks may not usually benefit from using a larger screen. The study in part, may have shown that the tasks involving the movement of data between different files may benefit from using larger or even multiple computer monitors.

 

Source: blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/03/10/