Let’s Go From the Whiteboardsupporting transitions in work through whiteboard capture and reuse

Gene GolovchinskyScott CarterJacob Biehl

Stacy Branham

Whiteboards don’t support capture

and reuse

“One obvious limitation of

current whiteboards is that

once material on the

whiteboard is erased it can

no longer be recovered.”

“Its content cannot be

saved and retrieved...”

“When thinking about new digital technologies we need to consider solutions that extend beyond the simple presentation of material to its distribution and later use.”

Mynatt, E.D., Igarashi, T., Edwards, W.K., and LaMarca, A. 1999. Flatland: New Dimensions in Office Whiteboards, Proc. CHI99, ACM, New York, NY, 346 - 353. Perry, M., and O’Hara, K. 2003. Display-Based Activity in the Workplace. In Proc INTERACT’03, IOS Press, 591-598.

Mynatt et al, 1999

Perry & O’Hara, 2003

Motivation

Whiteboards ARE pervasive tools for WORK

no studies of

Personal office

whiteboard reuse

Liveboard

Flat

Land

Workben

ch

Naviga

tor

Related work

DUMMbOZOMBIEB

OARD

ReBoard

auto and manual

board capture

use date, location, collaboration, etc, for Board Image re-access

print, email, save, and share board Images for reuse

ReBoard

Research Q’s

participant K’s board

Is whiteboard reuse relevant in a personal office?

How might REBOARD impact work practice?

Study7 week qualitative fie

ld study,

10 participants

Personal Office whiteboards

audio diary,Server logs,

Board changes,3 in situ interviews

2 parts: pre- and Post- ReBoardparticipant

L’s board

Chumby

new workflow categories events people

Shared RB image with colleague 8 4

Referred to erased content via RB image 7 5

Viewed own board remotely 4 3

Looked at image shared via RB 4 3

Printed RB image for discussion 3 3

Printed RB image, brought to meeting, copied to whiteboard 2 2

Looked at or printed RB image to make sure it was captured 2 2

Used RB to share jokes 4 3

Emailed/shared RB image with colleagues to prep for meeting 3 1

Referred to RB image of current, co-present whiteboard on PC 2 1

Referred to erased content via RB image

Referred to RB image of current, co-present whiteboard on PC

ReBoard enables new workflows

Shared RB image with colleague

Findings

“I'm afraid I will lose

the things so I tend not

to erase them until I

know for sure, for

sure, for sure that I

don't need it."

“I think the design has been up [for

over 2 months], and I didn't want to

erase it. This is something that we're

discussing that we didn't quite

complete, and it's a project that's

ongoing, so I don't want to erase that."

Participant D

Sharing a ReBoard Image With colleagues

“I have been moving things around much more and... erasing much more often on my whiteboard.”

“I can use my whiteboard more because I don't need to be afraid that I'm erasing something that is useful.”

Cont’DFindings

Referring to Erased Content VIA ReBoard Image

Participant M‘s Board

“We used ReBoard sort of as a paging mechanism.”Participant F

Cont’DFindings

REferring to Reboard image of current, co-

present whiteboard on PC

Participant J‘s BoardParticipant J

“I used [ReBoard] to make an expense report... I have to put some receipts [into Excel], so it’s easy to confuse--this is the hotel, this is the flight--so I made a list [on the board] before writing it to Excel, to make sure nothing was missing.”

“I took a snapshot and

looked at it and edited the

Excel sheet here--it’s easier to

look at both at the same time

[on the computer screen].”

Cont’DFindings

Successes of ReBoard

USED for 39 self-identified tasks

used 3 times in week following study

still in use by 5

participants

“Please don’t

take it away!”

participants

D and M

Diversity of use

Cont’DFindings

Motivation

goal is productivity,

data storage

preference for new technology

REvisiting

Whiteboards don’t support capture

and reuse

Whiteboards ARE pervasive tools for WORK

goal is productivity,

data storage

preference for new technology

Whiteboard Reuse is not for everyone

Whiteboard reuse can change the approach at the board

Whiteboard reuse requires Browsing, Searching

Whiteboard reuse requires goal-directed behavior

Whiteboard Reuse is not always about WORK

Findings

Participant K

Whiteboard Reuse is not for everyone

“Content doesn't tend to change real often, so it's hard for me to erase something that hasn't been there for a while.”

"Almost everything

on [the board] I

don't need anymore.”

“[The board] is big enough to hold all of the things I need to do until I need to erase again. I'm not paging out, I don't have to page memory; it's big enough that I don't have to keep swapping active tasks.”

Participant H

Participant I

“[Board drawings are] generally not something that I go

back and work on apart from the experience I gained in

thinking about it... I tend not to work things out and

then have that be the main thing I'm working on."

Cont’DFindings

“The erasability of the whiteboard ink... helps to frame the psychology of the design activity. Sketches are deliberately and glamorously informal.”

Ju et al., 2006

“I’m putting together more coherent thoughts; now I am actually using it to write meaningful content that stands on its own, perhaps because it’s archived.”

Participant E‘s Board

Participant E“writing neater,” including “more details”

“Earlier I wouldn't be putting [the details] in there knowing that I would be adding those details digitally” when re-creating the diagram in computer application.

Whiteboard reuse can change the approach at the board

Ju, W., Neeley, WL, Winograd, T, Leifer, L, "Thinking with Erasable Ink: Ad-hoc Whiteboard Use in Collaborative Design." (2006) CDR Technical Report20060928

Cont’DFindings

Participant H

Participant I

“I can feel [the whiteboard] staring at me. I'm not thinking about it, but I can feel it behind me. It's there... if I need to come back to it, it's going to be there, whereas if I erased it and stored it in front of my face [i.e. on the computer] but in a directory or behind a search wall or whatever, it's almost like I wouldn't feel it the same way.”

“It would be easier to find it [on the board] than it would be to dig the email out.”

Whiteboard reuse requires Browsing, Searching

Participant M’s board

“I have all kinds of

problems staying out of

my browser as it is, and

I'm trying not to go there.”

Participant K

Cont’DFindings

Participant L‘s Board

“I'm not terribly organized to begin with, so neither is my whiteboard. That’s OK because sometimes it also reveals that two UIs I'm working on are about the same; yeah, and maybe I should do something different.”

Participant L

VAlue does not always come from goal-directed behavior

Perry, M., and O’Hara, K. 2003. Display-Based Activity in the Workplace. In Proc INTERACT’03, IOS Press, 591-598.

Cont’DFindings

participant L’s board

participant F’s board

Whiteboard Reuse is not always about WORK

WORK

Perry, M., and O’Hara, K. 2003. Display-Based Activity in the Workplace. In Proc INTERACT’03, IOS Press, 591-598.

Cont’DFindings

Participant L

“Well, that one is just cute, and my daughter made it so it's just sweet.”“Since they tended to sort

of capture people's

imaginations, I kept them."“Now it's in ReBoard, so maybe I can erase it finally.”

Participant D

"They're conversation starters."

Perry, M., and O’Hara, K. 2003. Display-Based Activity in the Workplace. In Proc INTERACT’03, IOS Press, 591-598.

Whiteboard Reuse is not always about WORK

Cont’DFindings

Conclusions Participant J’s board

Participant I’s board

whiteboard use is idiosyncratic

ReBoard creates new workflows

Whiteboard Reuse is not always appropriate

Q’s

THankS TO:

Questions

Gene GolovchinskyScott CarterJacob Biehl

Elizabeth ChurchillSteve Harrison

Scott McCrickard

Deborah TatarLAurian VegaJason LEe