Is Bigger Always Better?

Should your company upgrade to grande? The monetary value of larger flat screen monitors is well worth the return in employee productivity, as proven in a recent study conducted by Apple Computers.

The phrase “one size fits all” has become all but obsolete in today’s society. Consumers today face a barrage of choices in size in everything from coffee to car rims, and the same holds true for business technology. Apple Computers has made the choice of a flat screen monitor size a little easier by conducting a study to measure productivity gains using the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display. The larger surface area of the monitor makes for a more efficient use of space and time.

The study proved that not only does the larger, higher resolution monitor increase productivity, it more than doubles it. Several aspects of office applications such as word processors were studied, as well as professional publishing applications. The most conclusive results came from a study which tested productivity in relation to the actual size of the monitor.

The time that it took employees to combine data from Excel spreadsheets was studied using a 17 inch and 30 inch monitor. An article which reported Apple’s findings states that “cutting and pasting cells from Excel spreadsheets resulted in a 51.31% productivity gain — a task that took 20.7 seconds on the larger monitor versus 42.6 seconds on the smaller screen.” That is an astounding 105% increase in employee productivity per hour.

Pfeiffer Consulting, which was comissioned to conduct the study for Apple, attributes the increase in productivity to the larger surface area of the monitor. The larger surface enables its user to view the entirety of their work without the hassle of enlarging or relocating it. Whereas with a smaller surface, the user must maximize and minimize with the each new window or adding of information. The larger monitor was also helpful to employees in data basing inormation using spread sheets.

The larger LCD monitor also surpasses the smaller monitor in quality, energy efficiency, as well as health. The LCD monitor is proven to last longer than CRT montitors and requires less maintainance, as well as being more enegery efficient. One can never be too careful when it comes to their health and in that aspect the LCD causes less fatigue to the eyes heavier computer users.

The viewer’s eyes are also less fatigued when looking at the screen because of the absence of scan lines and constant light.

The bottom line is this: the 30 inch flat screen LCD monitor might cost more than a smaller monitor, but the increase in productivity and the longevity of the monitor are well worth the cost for businesses.

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Autmn Davis is a staff writer for Murdok covering ebusiness and technology.