apple news/media reports
11/08/2006, 9:35am, EST
Wednesday, November 8th
Nielsen cries foul on Apple study
Web usability expert Jakob Nielson of Nielsen Norman Group has dubbed an Apple-sponsored study on large monitors and productivity meaningless. "A study of the benefits of big monitors fails on two accounts: it didn't test realistic tasks, and it didn't test realistic use," Nielsen wrote in his blog. "Productivity is a key argument for workplace usability, but you must measure it carefully." Nielsen says even if the method could be trusted, Pfieffer's figures were incorrect: "Reducing task time from 42.6 seconds to 20.7 seconds is actually a productivity gain of 105 percent, not 51 percent." Additionally, Apple's study focused at the wrong level of work -- pasting spreadsheet cells is not a user task, according to Nielsen, but an operation at a low interaction level. Nielsen also points to the fact that researchers tested rote memory operations which were practiced prior to the study, resulting in an unrealistic representation of how users operate, according to WebProNews.
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Working in Word, I can comfortably get 2 pages side by side to work on them, easily checking layouts and such.
In Excel, I can see more of the spreadsheet so I can work faster with less scrolling.
When I edit my photos, I can see more of it with the big monitor, so less zooming and such.
I won't even discuss how having dual monitors increases productivity with putting often used (but important) programs off on the 2nd monitor.
I call BS on his whole post.
Typical PC users (I am not kidding, I work for a large corporation with about the same number of Mac and PC users) use only one program (or one window) at a time. Mac users have always been using their computers in a different manner.
Moreover, at the time of writing this message, I have 14 open programs, 6 windows currently open on the screen, not counting 6 tabs in Safari and 22 Sticky's windows that I can reach within one mouse click. All that stuff is on my two 20" monitors. Give me one 17" screen and then we'll talk about the productivity.