Work Station
How would you like to have to deal with this much information at once?
I'd be willing to bet this is partly for show. Most of the screens probably only track a single stock, so this is more a "time saving device" so you don't need to flip between windows on a single screen. I'm willing to bet that there are studies out there that show how much information you can handle under stress...too many active windows would probably mean indecision rather than decisive action.
(And yes, this came out of some work-related research. So I can post while I'm at work!)
Posted by Fred Kiesche at December 12, 2007 02:14 PMI routinely have two or three computers feeding four or five screens going at once. (For that matter, you should see what my WoW interface looks like if you are worried about information overload.) It is actually easier for me, because I don't have to dig through layers of windows.
What happens is that your brain starts to associate data with a location. It is much more tangible when you remember that "this data lives up here on my right." When you think about it, your eyes automagically go up and right, even without you thinking about needing the data. On top of that, if you have good glance-friendly interfaces (like the sparklines he is using) then you can scan twenty or thirty stocks very quickly. Your brain does a better job of sorting them out than if they are all layered on a single screen, because it compares it to what was last on that particular screen rather than trying to tie it to a time (which is how you reference layered, windowed data.)
Most people's brains are much, much better and faster at remembering location based associations than discrete time (or depth) based associations.
Posted by: Phelps at December 12, 2007 02:45 PMMy wife has two computers feeding four screens at work. But she (and her colleagues) say that you can't keep up the pace (news business, finance related, so even faster pace than "normal" news) for long.
Posted by: Fred Kiesche at December 12, 2007 03:10 PM