One advantage of being IT consultants and working with all kinds of companies in the Chicago area is that you get to see how people work. From our extensive “research,” it is clear that one monitor per computer is becoming insufficient for the modern workplace.
There are three main components to most office projects: email, documents, and the Internet. Email is usually the most important application. It is the work requestor and the submission tool for completed work, and it needs to be referred to continually as the work is processed. Second, there is the actual document, or application, that you are using—for example, an Excel worksheet, Word document, industry application, or financial application. Finally, there is the Internet. While working on a document, you might need to use it to find a zip code, research a tax code, or look up how to create a function on Excel.
The dual monitor comes in handy when you need to look at two screens simultaneously to compare and verify. Using one monitor, you would have to constantly bounce back and forth between windows—or else resize the windows, which can be frustrating and time-consuming.
Customers we have worked with to set up a dual monitor have been amazed by the experience, and they find it hard to believe that they ever worked on a single monitor. Dual monitors will definitely become the standard in the not-very-distant future.