The perfect whiteboard

    Whiteboard or whiteboard is an almost mandatory attribute of any self-respecting development team. With the proper skill and desire, an ordinary board can save a lot of time and significantly improve the result of the team - a quick and effective way of communication has always been very critical and directly influenced the result of collective efforts.

    But is it possible to make the instrument itself more pleasant? Add a twist?




    The author more than once had the opportunity to make sure how quickly people understand ideas, backed up by a number of visual illustrations. Curiously, even experienced developers are not always easy to perceive information by ear. It is probably affected by the overload of information flows and the experience gained in not very quiet rooms. A pair of "squares", usually, perfectly helps to concentrate and tune in the right way. It is not surprising, by the way, because for many years, starting from the first grade of high school, the blackboard has been an obligatory part of the learning process.

    Moreover, the board (being, in fact, a large sheet of paper) is a primitive, but very effective “intelligence amplifier” ( Stanislav Lem “Sum of Technologies”) The author sincerely hopes the reader is deprived of the acquired hatred of rectangular shapes and understands their usefulness.

    So, the market is replete with a variety of whiteboards, but some people (to whom the author includes himself) are actively looking for alternatives. Admittedly, the initial motivating factor is the cost of the factory board.

    We formulate the basic requirements:
    • Adequate cost
    • Durability
    • Ability to create detailed schemes
    • Contrast
    • Not soiled
    • Subjective pleasure to use
    • Original look (optional)

    Many people use the board to create extremely crude and primitive schemes, but sometimes, if the project under discussion is complex and further discussion is expected, it is more efficient to accurately indicate the necessary details or leave room for them.

    It is for long-lived illustrations that the ability of a board to save a drawing is important. If something can be erased, it will be erased, staining clothes and rendering the illustration unusable. Agree, it is unpleasant to lose modules, subsystems or objects and find them on your clothes.

    The durability of the board is very important, since standard boards with fairly intensive use come into disrepair quickly enough. Formally, they still remain new, but it really is not very pleasant to work with them.

    Marker Board v1.0


    This project was created for the home and pursued only one goal - to provide a simple way to visually store ideas, plans, intermediate results, etc. The simplest way of implementation was chosen - a glass surface with a custom-made frame.



    By the way, it’s very nice to draw on glass, but special markers (for example, alcohol-based) are needed for this. This approach has one huge plus - five minutes after creating the next “masterpiece” of technological, architectural or any other thought, erasing this “masterpiece” seems somewhat difficult.

    The minus, by the way, is again in this feature. When a “masterpiece” needs to be removed, special means must be used:
    • Mr. muscle or analogues (colleagues will not be happy, the room requires ventilation)
    • alcohol solution or vodka (colleagues will not understand you, the authorities will convict the whole team of alcohol abuse)
    • cologne (colleagues will go wild, bosses will try to figure out the local "macho")
    • special napkins (presumably everyone will be happy, but not your wallet)

    The home board was put in place in 2005 and is still there. No deterioration in her qualities was noticed. An attempt of unauthorized cleaning, which was aimed at destroying without doubt the valuable work of the author, was unsuccessful - only ephemeral dust was washed off the board.

    Marker Board v2.0


    A little later, the author found the courage to admit some annoying effect of white. Having a noticeable size, a white board becomes an additional distraction, since peripheral vision is perceived as a fairly bright area of ​​the surrounding space.

    While still a student, the author met detailed plans and drawings made on an unusual blue background. By the way, Legend Destroyers use just such paper for preliminary quick sketches of their
    future experiments.



    The curious reader probably already knows the term blueprint , which is applicable, in fact, to any detailed plan. The author decided that for architecture design ( architecture blueprinting) An appropriate tool is needed, which was created using the already known technology.

    It took only a few sheets of colored cardboard (the color, by the way, was chosen very carefully with the participation of an attentive and very thoughtful designer, thanks Leo ) and a standard glass frame to obtain the desired result.

    The manufacturing technology of the “magic board”:

    Through collective efforts, the cardboard was glued and placed under glass. The result of short efforts was a wonderful tool that automatically turns any circuit into an adult blueprint. All attributes are in place, do not dig.



    In the city, a store was found selling wonderful white markers designed just for glass. I admit, the board was very pleasant to use, pleasing to the eye and caused very positive emotions.

    The selected background color provides excellent contrast and does not strain the eye. A small additional bonus of the glass board is the “hardware” shadow effect. Since the background is behind the glass, and the drawing is applied to the glass - you can observe the cast shadow, which, subjectively, makes the picture more pleasant and contrast.

    To whom, give the developer squares, but the designer simply frolics:



    A lot of markers were written down, a lot of things were designed, the board saw heated debate and discussions, surprised visitors and even a puzzled cleaner. In a word - the tool fell very much in place.



    Intensive use of the board did not leave any marks. A separate find was a glued frame, which allowed much more careless use of liquid detergents.

    Another problem is the glare, which, by the way, is typical for ordinary marker boards. Accordingly, the choice of location is no less important.

    The described events took place at the end of 2006. By the way, using this approach it is easy to get:
    • corporate board
    • blackboard with favorite color background
    • forest or heavenly board
    • etc.

    It is enough to choose the necessary color:



    Rebranding or the advent of a new “power”, such a board will survive easily and naturally.

    Marker Board v3.0


    The author sometimes thinks of a third, even more enjoyable and convenient, version of the whiteboard. What will she be like? Completely transparent, mobile, with integrated backlight, with integrated hood? Who knows, wait and see.

    Useful links:

    Helpful hints:
    • Tip # 1: if you want to test the approach, but are not ready to waste time, find the marker and the nearest window
    • Tip # 2: pay attention to the psychology of color (below in the comments you will find a little prank)
    • Tip # 3: Before using tip # 1, find a detergent

    Also popular now: