It’s Black and White?
Trivia question: Where is Einstein’s brain today?
Sketching and diagraming are very important tools for the designer. This hasn’t changed for centuries. Cavemen drew pictures, Einstein drew formulas, designers draw everything you can imagine. There is a clever site where you can pretend to be Einstein at the board, totally hilarious. Drawing is a tool for both communication and problem solving. One of the traps that many designers today fall into is the desire to run to a computer to solve a design problem. Not so fast. Never under estimate the power of the traditional methods. One of my favorites is the blackboard. When I was about 8 years old my dad put a good sized blackboard in the garage for my artistic endeavors and doodling early design project details for things like Cub Scout assignments. I followed his lead by screwing an even larger blackboard to the wall in my own garage for my sons to use. I bought it a the Mayo Clinic surplus equipment store for a whopping 8 dollars. I ended up using it as much as they did. Some things never change I guess.
When I first started working at IBM back in the 80’s I had a huge blackboard in my office that was well over four feet wide and eight feet tall. It was a floor to ceiling statement of creativity. What a wonderful way to draw a refrigerator sized design concept. You could even draw it as though it were sitting directly on the ground. It was a great tool. Chalk may leave dust behind and perhaps gets your clothing a bit messy, but it never runs out of ink. Even if you couldn’t find chalk you could still draw in the the residue of former sessions with your finger. Much of the mid- 90’s IBM AS/400 Advanced Series design conceptual work was actually done on that very blackboard. There is just something about an old school blackboard that still gets my creative juices going.
Would Einstein have liked this?
Okay, white boards have their place too. We have several huge ones that allow us to brainstorm our thoughts and project design photos or drawings at the same time. Remember those electronic white boards that captured what you created and printed it out for you as a memento? They didn’t quite catch on in my world. One true benefit of the basic whiteboard is the ability to draw over the projected image. Not so easy with a blackboard. This technique allows me or my team to envision design revisions as though you were working on a giant drafting table.
There is no such thing as too large of a drawing surface
As useful as white boards are, they still frustrate me. The ghostly image from the last meeting seems to hover on the board like a cloud of blue haze that refuses to die. Someone always steals the nasty smelling eraser which in turn demands that you rub the board clean with your handkerchief, finger, or hand. I hate having rainbow colored hands for the rest of the day. The markers also seem to always be the wrong color for what I want to draw. When using ink or pencils I like to draw with black. Color has a place, but not just color for the sake of color. For me it should have meaning in a sketch or diagram. If the markers aren’t missing they are squeaky dry, or totally empty. The empties annoyingly never seem to quite make it into the trash can. Do you throw the chalk away when it’s used up? Think about it. The ultimate white board crime is when someone writes on it with a permanant marker. Game over.
I thought it would be interesting to poll Design Matters readers as to their own preference.
David Hill
November 18th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Definetly whiteboard, i don’t like the dry feeling of the chalk and the noise a blackboard makes when not holding the chalk correctly (or by using your fingernails) is just horrible…
But the arguments about the empty markers is just as, if not even more valid.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Neither actually, I prefer an easel with good old fashioned paper. Now granted, you can’t erase paper, but it does solve the problem of saving your work.
Just tear off the sheet, fold it, and bring it with you.
That being said, I wish my office had a blackboard. I agree with most of your arguments against the whiteboard.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
i strongly dislike whiteboards, and computers aren’t spacious enough for big ideas (or even small ideas presented to a big room). also, black blackboards are much preferred over green blackboards.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I teach in a school where there are both black- and white- boards. The latter are found in the new conference-style language classrooms, and the former in the old fashioned classrooms. I much prefer blackboards because the pen I take with me always fails at the wrong time (i.e., when it fails…) and because of that colour problem and also because chalk is (almost) always white and easy to see on black. Interestingly I much prefer the new classrooms for teaching English, so it’s difficult to decide where I like to be most (well, maybe the one sound-proofed classroom in the whole school.)
Smart boards…what, you mean I have to turn on the blackboard these days? I’m a computer nut and even I’d give up before testing that one out. I mean, the fact that the functionality of the board relies entirely on whether or not windows starts up, that’s crazy.
Whiteboards are nice sometimes, but as you say you never know when they’ve run out and the horrible waste eats away at my soul. There’s always a few boxes of chalk in the classrooms so you don’t even have to bring anything with you.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Whiteboards for me.
One solution I’ve found to the “saving your work” issue is to simply take a photo of what you’ve done. I’m a software developer, and a lot of what I do is actually program design (UML diagrams and so on). What I do is draw out the design on a whiteboard, then when I’ve completed it, take a photo of it and work from that. This is especially useful when you don’t have a “personal” whiteboard to make use of.
I’ve also heard of a debating venue which actually has a ceiling-mounted camera specifically for the purpose of taking a photo of a whiteboard. It can be configured to upload the photo to an ftp account, or alternatively, email it directly to an email address.
November 18th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Before shutting our office down, we had a conference room lined with whiteboards. There were four big 4×8 boards and one 4×4 board. The big ones were the typical Office Max/Depot brand, and the ghosting was horrible. We bought a buffer from Home Depot to assist in removing the ghost writing (worked a treat, too.) The smaller one was a much nicer board in every way – build quality was superb, built-in marker tray and the ink came off with the eraser – no ghosting!
That said, I use a pair of Kludd memo boards from Ikea; they are essentially pieces of beveled, frosted glass with mounting holes. Ink erases without a trace on them. Some of the non-standard colors (i.e. bright green) do not show up, but I have five different colors right now.
November 18th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Richard, I have used boards that used glass over a white surface. Much better than the traditional versions in that they do not leave the ghost images I dislike. Still not perfect.
November 18th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
I would take the whiteboard since white associates with “fresh” if you know what I mean. But unfortunately nowadays at IBM you would be lucky to even find a notepad available at the stationary cabinet, ironically there are plenty of pens lol!
November 19th, 2009 at 1:45 am
I’d like to comment on the beauty of the opening photo… “The theory of Thinkpad”… priceless.
To me there really is no substitute for a good blackboard and chalk. Especially when the board has just been cleaned – something about it is just so inviting. It’s as if its monolithic presence is telling you to go to it and just start writing down your ideas and dreams.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:05 am
OMG, the white Thinkpad X200e is coming!
November 19th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Don’t give me White ThinkPad please!
And I hate chocolate keyboard too!
November 19th, 2009 at 8:49 am
David, Einstein’s legacy continues. Check out the Perimeter Institute: Blackboards and Blackberries.
BTW notice the black exterior. All that’s missing is a large red dot
November 19th, 2009 at 8:58 am
what for is that small smiley between left column and main column?
here’s direct link to it:
http://stats.wordpress.com/g.g.....5&ref=
November 19th, 2009 at 11:04 am
without a doubt: blackboard. whiteboards are too sterile and bring thoughts of boring marketing meetings rather than ones of creative sessions. there’s something about a thick chalkline on slate that puts me in the mood to think.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Yes, I heard about the Thinkpad Edge/X100e/X200e or whatever it will be branded as. I’m sincerely hoping it doesn’t end up getting Thinkpad branding but something tells me it’s happening. Thinkpads should be strictly for professionals – those who know, know, and those who don’t, well, don’t. But hey, I’m a dreamer!
November 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
No to white ThinkPads and no to 16:9 screen ratio !
November 19th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
I’m a student at UPenn and by far one of my favorite things about the classrooms is that almost every single one uses blackboards.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
I reach for my ThinkPad… or even my phone. Writing solves most of it for me. I often write some sort of “code” to cut up and organize what I need to do. But when I like to draw, I always wish I had that touchscreen ThinkPad…
I don’t like blackboards because of the noise, but it seems good chalks and some knowledge makes that noise more or less like music, and I happen to love that… but I can’t make it myself, and I love the whiteboards ability to show OH and draw on that. But I hate that they’re glossy and not matte, just as some stupid computer screens…
For saving I actually use my phone camera. It works.
I love the computer for the versatility. I can draw and write and paint and calculate and whatever in the same place, same environment.
But paper and pencil is probably the best for sketching…
November 19th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Forgot to mention the green blackboards, as they have no adequate reason to exist…
And thankyou David for another nice post in the field of design theory and workflow… but it would be fun if you could share more about how you work (and how you Think), and why/how you have chosen your methods. Actually, I believe I think that’s the most interesting part.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
When I was a part-time college teacher the campus upgraded most of the classrooms with whiteboards and projectors, and I often supplemented my PowerPoint lectures by overlaying the illustrations. I’ve never had problems with markers and erasers as my co-teachers were well-behaved. Sometimes though I do wax nostalgic for the good ole’ days over elementary school when blackboards were the standard and we were assigned to clean the erasers.
BTW, sometimes colored markers run together when overlapping and create smudges that don’t quite come out nicely. Not so for colored chalk.
November 20th, 2009 at 6:07 am
I am alone or are there more people who are getting scared by every single step Lenovo does to ThinkPads ? No, a white notebook with childish macbook-toy-like keyboard is not the ThinkPad at all.
The X100e does not look like a bad notebook and might get an attention by some customers but I want my ThinkPad. An X100 with 11.1″ 1366×768 display *and* regular classic black ThinkPad design and keyboard layout should be announced as well to break my (or our ?) doubts about Lenovo future directions.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Yup, I’ve seen both the X100e and Edge, and doubtless David will give us his piece on both soon.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Well, I use my X61s as netbook. But I wouldnt mind if it was even smaller, lighter, just for web browsing and mobile stuff … However 16:9 screen ratio doesnt fit this … Im not sure also Id like that keyboard … X61s and X200 series keyboards are my no 1. No giant keys also !
November 20th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Guys, could we for once stick to the subject in one of these blog postings and not veer off into what we want and don’t want in future ThinkPads? I’m as unhappy as the next person with the recent ThinkPad changes and potential new ones, but I also find the subject David is writing about here interesting.
November 20th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
“Someone always steals the nasty smelling eraser which in turn demands that you rub the board clean with your handkerchief, finger, or hand.”
How is that different from a blackboard? Someone always steals the chalky eraser, so you have to smudge all the chalk away with your handkerchief, finger, or hand? Not to mention how just using the eraser gets clouds of dust all over you.
That said, I’m a fan of tablet screens for that kind of thing. They’re not as big as a chalkboard, but you can resize, erase, modify layers, etc. No copying/photos necessary, and you can take it with you wherever you want.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I prefer whiteboards over power point any day. A white board allows me to express ideas that PPT presentation would never allow me to do without scores of perperation.
November 22nd, 2009 at 4:01 am
As an X60 Tablet owner, I usually plot most ideas down with my stylus ;D
I personally prefer whiteboards over blackboards though, simply from the unpleasant feel and dustiness of chalk.
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
I’d prefer a nice tablet+projector if money weren’t an issue, but since it is: blackboard.
I remember the switch from the blackboards of elementary and middle school to the whiteboards of highschool (and the weird tablet-projector-easel prototypes – think mini-whiteboard sans markers, just color-coded digitizer pens). There are more people with more concerns about allergies and irritants now, which is what I imagine drove the newer school away from chalk and blackboards.
Blackboards win on reliable erasure, a perfect reset via water and rag, and no concerns about disposal of accessories (just grind up the nubs and sprinkle in a garden). I never had a chance to try out ‘dustless’ chalk (heavier dust particles, they fall down instead of drifting around), have you?
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:16 pm
This post has motivated me to buy blackboard paint and paint a huge blackboard on the back of my sliding office door.
And I just feel the need to mention this as well – If the rumors about the T410s are true, it may very well be the greatest Thinkpad since the 701c… so many major design improvements!
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:41 am
I like whiteboards and I always maintain them in good shape. My son (2 years old) likes white walls and keys, pencils, whatever leaves a trace. Fortunately I still have a bucket of white paint to give him fresh walls.
To properly clean a blackboard use a sponge wrapped in towel and some water. Make something like pouch from the towel and put the sponge inside, soak with water, squeeze so it doesn’t drip and clean the blackboard. No chalk clouds anymore. Once per semester wash with water and winegar, i know it smells bad but after winegar it’s fantastic. If you want to give someone a hard time with a blackboard put some fat on it (butter, lard, oil) it’s crazy.
Best cleaner for whiteboards is isopropilic alcohol mixed with water. Perform this kind of cleaning with open windows, otherwise it’s bad. If somebody used a permanent marker, trace over it with whiteboard marker and wipe with cloth, not with eraser.
November 24th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I know this doesnt belong here! But, can you believe it, Lenovo does not have any other source of contact for constumer satisfaction. So, I decided to use any source that they actually provide to let everyone know their wrongdoings. I received a case number since October 2009. They told me that they would send me a box to send my laptop back for repairs, but that didn’t happen. Because I had a feeling that they were not going to send the box after 1 week, I decided to give them a call on November 1, 2009. It was now, that they told me that they will send the box. Afterwards, they called my house a few times and told me to send my laptop back because ALL the parts were in and my laptop was ready to be repaired. After they received my laptop for over 1 week, I decided to call them again about the process because the promise was 3-5 business days for the repair. But, when I called them, they told me that they were missing the lcd screen for my laptop! WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL!!!! I then asked them to let me talk to customer satisfaction, but they told me that their was no way I can get transfered!!!! All companies should have that ability because they should VALUE their customers and obviously Lenovo doesnt! I am very disatisfied with their service and I am letting you know because I don’t want you to fall into the same trap that I did from believing in lenovo =(
November 26th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Regina, I just have to say, this is certainly not the place to be complaining about customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction. This is a design blog, and though many of us veer off the topic of one of David’s posts (I am certainly guilty of this), we try to keep our comments design related. Lenovo (at least the Thinkpad division) is one of the few companies with which one can directly communicate and interact with the chief designers, something I believe is worthy of a great deal of respect, and something that certainly reflects directly upon customer satisfaction. I’m pretty sure non of us here feel like we have fallen into a trap – we’re all capable of making our own decisions.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
*none
November 28th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Blackboard (the chalk is always WHITE). However, blackboards are more difficult to clean – dry sponge doesn’t clean it thoroughly; wet sponges are messy and you need to use “glass wiper” or wait for it to dry completely before you can write/draw on it again
November 29th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
White, of course. It’s cleaner, easier to write and clean..
But on the other hand, I think David might be trying to reconcile ThinkPad users with the idea of a white ThinkPad.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
My son’s 5th grade classroom uses a Promethian interactive whiteboard. It solves a lot of the problems with a traditional white board. You can even print and/or email what’s on the board at the end of a meeting.
http://www.prometheanworld.com.....=nav.16005