Views are often misquoted and mischaracterized

This is a free members post. To get all my members posts, and my courses, become a member.

While reading this excellent article on Minimal Trust Investigations I found myself nodding my head strongly as the author talked about following links/resources to see if the quote was characterized properly. Much like the author, I find that many times the quote sounds good but is taken out of context and doesn't seem to be applied correctly.

One area I looked into deeply, though it's been a while and should look again, was the assertion that multiple monitors make for more productivity. The studies I found cited were of users taking data from one spreadsheet and moving it to another one. In this context I agree that multiple monitors are likely an improvement in productivity as you can see and interact with both windows at the same time.

But, I'm not convinced that this translates into a general productivity boost for multiple monitors with multiple windows accessible. I wonder if the multple overlapping screens with multiple visible distractions, like Facebook and Slack, pull users away from the focused work they should be doing.

The studies I've read don't allow for more than the two apps open that are required for the study.

So before I really believe that multiple monitors brings more productivity in general I want to see a study of real world users interacting with multiple screens and does it improve their productivity?

I know we can't always follow the sources and quotes, but we should be doing it far more often. You shouldn't trust what I write, you should take a look and dig deeper.