Use and Perceptions of Multi-Monitor Workstations: A Natural Experiment

TL;DR

This study surveys professional developers to assess perceptions of multi-monitor setups, revealing they are viewed positively, but interactions with co-workers significantly influence productivity more than physical workspace configurations.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence from practitioners on multi-monitor use and highlights the importance of social interactions over physical setup in productivity.

Findings

Multi-monitor setups are perceived as beneficial by developers.

Co-worker interactions impact productivity more than physical workspace.

Many developers added monitors during COVID-19 to improve their work environment.

Abstract

Using multiple monitors is commonly thought to improve productivity, but this is hard to check experimentally. We use a survey, taken by 101 practitioners of which 80% have coded professionally for at least 2 years, to assess subjective perspectives based on experience. To improve validity, we compare situations in which developers naturally use different setups -- the difference between working at home or at the office, and how things changed when developers were forced to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The results indicate that using multiple monitors is indeed perceived as beneficial and desirable. 19% of the respondents reported adding a monitor to their home setup in response to the Covid-19 situation. At the same time, the single most influential factor cited as affecting productivity was not the physical setup but interactions with co-workers -- both reduced productivity due to lack of connections available at work, and improved productivity due to reduced interruptions from co-workers. A central implication of our work is that empirical research on software development should be conducted in settings similar to those actually used by practitioners, and in particular using workstations configured with multiple monitors.