"Reaction [beta]"
The large display paradox 10 Aug 2007
The "large display paradox" says that larger monitors make users less productive as a result of all the additional window management issues they create. Daniel Rutter recently ran into this problem when he upgraded to a 30" LCD:
"Users of 30-inch monitors face the terrible, terrible problem of how to effectively use all of that space. You don't often want to maximise a folder or document window on a screen this big; either you'll end up with a lot of white space and important program buttons separated by a vast expanse of nothing, or you'll get lines of text 300 or more characters long, which are difficult to read."
What's the answer? Well, according to Jeff Atwood, it's multiple smaller monitors. That is, buying three 20" monitors, instead of one 30" monitor.
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2 comments so far
Kenneth Sundqvist (Evil Oatmeal) 10 Aug 2007 10:41 AM
Clearly the answer is improved window managers. Because the truth is that there is no single window manager that is actually good for the average user.
I myself use Gnome (Linux) and it does a decent job. It has multiple (virtual) desktops, which helps organizing and reduce clutter confusion. It also has snapping. Snapping makes window management zillion times easier, and with additional things such as farther snapping (holding Shift), maximize horizontally/vertically/full (Meta (Winkey) + H/V/X, per my settings) and a drag key (hold Alt and click and drag anywhere on a window) it takes you no more than a second to set any window in its position, and make good use of every single pixel.
Gnome also opens things much more intelligently. Have your file browser take up half of your screen and open another file browser window and it will place itself in the free space- and that goes for many of things.
Windows Explorer is to window management as a spike club is to brushing your teeth.
GG 10 Aug 2007 04:10 PM
I don't believe that consumers will always want a larger monitor. At some point in the (near) future, monitors will exceed the size that we can physically attend to (due to the limitations of the human body / our eyes, brains etc.) and then the madness will end. It's like paper....you can buy sheets as large as your house, but most people are pretty happy to stick to A4 / Letter - it feels more comfortable to work with.