Results

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Utah has drawn a solid correlation between widescreen displays and worker productivity. Analysts and industry experts have long suggested a connection between screen set-up and productivity, and the new study confirms this belief. As CIO.com has reported, “Organizations that upgrade their employees’ standard-format monitors to widescreen displays can realize productivity gains equivalent to 76 extra work days a year per worker, as well as annual cost savings of more than $8,000 per staff member…(That math assumes a staffer who makes $32,500 annually.)”

The research was funded by NEC, an industry leader in LED, plasma, and projection displays, and they’ve made a PDF of the study’s key findings available to the public. Ninety-six members of the University of Utah community, including faculty, staff, and students, performed varying tasks on different monitor set ups. The participants were broken up according to their level of comfort with technology (novice, intermediate, or advanced) to ensure the results would be compared appropriately. Researchers prepared different tasks to test spreadsheet and text editing performance, as well as taking into account monitor preferences. The study found that participants using a 24-inch widescreen monitor tested 52% faster than those using an 18-inch monitor. Also, those using a dual 20-inch set-up were 44% faster than those with 18-inch screens. Additional findings were:

• Large widescreen or dual-monitor configurations are better suited for work that involves multiple documents or applications.
• 24-inch widescreen displays are better suited for text editing than both single standard format (17-inch and 19-inch) and dual standard format (17-inch and 19-inch) monitor configurations.
• Dual-widescreen configurations in 22-inches or larger are better for spreadsheet editing than single widescreen or standard format displays.
• Net annual cost savings of using 24-inch widescreen monitors in place of standard format, 18-inch monitors, including electricity and monitor costs, is roughly $2.1 million a year for 250-employee companies and about $4.3 million for firms with 500 staffers.

The research also revealed that bigger is not necessarily better. Worker productivity started to fall when participants upgraded to a 26-inch screen, showing that more “real estate” is not the only key which allows users to complete tasks quickly and efficiently. The study also assumes a solid eight hour work block and focused on tasks that would benefit from larger, wider screens. While some graphic- or text-intensive tasks could be performed more readily on a wide screen or dual-monitor set-up, not all types of work are subject to the results of this study. The lead researcher at the University of Utah, Dr. James A. Anderson, says in an NEC press release, “large widescreen or dual-monitor configurations are recommended for use in any situation where multiple documents of information are an ordinary part of work.” Anderson found that the widescreen set-up was especially beneficial to workers whose tasks involved moving data between files, such as transferring information from a text document into a spreadsheet.

Reader comments on CIO.com’s article express skepticism about the findings. One reader remarks, “Has anyone every conducted a study of how many vendor-sponsored university studies (yes, from the supposed heartland of “scientific” research), whether by food, drug, or computer hardware companies, end up with published findings that are not favourable to the sponsor?” This is a valid concern for any study conducted on behalf of a commercial enterprise, but the results of the research are overwhelmingly homogeneous, which suggests the accuracy of the findings. Dr. Anderson assured the Wall Street Journal that the study was validated by the University of Utah’s research board and not simply a product of NEC’s PR department.

NEC, no doubt delighted at the outcome of the study, has launched a site to help businesses decide how to upgrade their monitors, and it includes a calculator to help CIOs determine their expected cost savings when switching to widescreen displays. The idea of widescreen monitors as a panacea for productivity problems is not what NEC or the University of Utah means to suggest. Dr. Anderson recommends that businesses take the time to match workers to the monitor set-up that best meets their needs. While they may not be a cure for the productivity ills of the work place, widescreen displays can help with repetitive, side-by-side, real-estate intensive tasks, allowing employees to perform their tasks more quickly and comfortably.

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels