Re: Need help with a recommendation

["Steven J. Owens" <puff -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

>Wendy Lewis writes:
> How? Simple economics. Write up a cost justification on how it will
> benefit ***the company***. Do some tracking and figuring on how much
> time you waste in switching between windows and different scaled
> views of each window.

     I think the book _Peopleware_ might be useful here.  The part I'm
thinking of is the concept of "workflow" (i.e. when you're in the
groove and productive as hell).  The book claimed that interruptions
knock you out of workflow and take as much as 20 minutes to return to
workflow.  The interruption of moving from application to application
isn't as great, but it's constant; you could make a case that it
prevents you from achieving workflow and (if the book had any concrete
productivity comparisons) calculate the damage to your productivity.

     Peopleware is fairly old, you may be able to find more recent
works with more statistics and such.  Check in the human factors
fields.  Also check in ergonomics fields, they're the sorta folks
likely to go looking for these kinds of statistics.

     I'd also start by describing an appropriate hardware setup so you
have a "norm".  Describe the ideal, then describe a compromise system
that is still acceptable.

Steven J. Owens
puff -at- netcom -dot- com


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