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blog/_posts/2021-09-14-online-whiteboards.md

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+---
+title: Web-based online whiteboards
+description: Essential tooling for remote teams
+layout: hh
+tags: agile remote
+image: laptop-online.jpg
+---
+
+![A white-desk](white-desk.jpg)
+
+<a class="unsplash" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/gXsJ9Ywb5as" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 32 32"><title>unsplash-logo</title><path d="M20.8 18.1c0 2.7-2.2 4.8-4.8 4.8s-4.8-2.1-4.8-4.8c0-2.7 2.2-4.8 4.8-4.8 2.7.1 4.8 2.2 4.8 4.8zm11.2-7.4v14.9c0 2.3-1.9 4.3-4.3 4.3h-23.4c-2.4 0-4.3-1.9-4.3-4.3v-15c0-2.3 1.9-4.3 4.3-4.3h3.7l.8-2.3c.4-1.1 1.7-2 2.9-2h8.6c1.2 0 2.5.9 2.9 2l.8 2.4h3.7c2.4 0 4.3 1.9 4.3 4.3zm-8.6 7.5c0-4.1-3.3-7.5-7.5-7.5-4.1 0-7.5 3.4-7.5 7.5s3.3 7.5 7.5 7.5c4.2-.1 7.5-3.4 7.5-7.5z"></path></svg></span><span>Samantha Borges</span></a>
+
+Software development requires readily-available high-bandwidth communication.
+Without it, productivity slows down.
+
+The highest bandwidth communication between two people combines a fluid conversation, seeing the other person, and having someone to make notes and draw pictures.
+If you can’t do this whenever you want, you’ll compromise communication, collaborate poorly, and waste time.
+
+## Use whiteboards
+
+Use whiteboards.
+Not only do software development teams need whiteboards,
+[one whiteboard isn’t enough](whiteboards).
+Our new _remote-first-by-default_ workplaces don’t make this easy, though, 
+because in the past, software alternatives haven’t worked well.
+
+Remote teams need effective software-based whiteboards.
+Software used to offer ineffective imitations of the real thing.
+Fortunately, we have new alternatives.
+
+## Sticky notes and sketches
+
+[Miro](https://miro.com/online-whiteboard/) and
+[Mural](https://www.mural.co)
+both give you similar canvases that you can use like a whiteboard.
+In both cases, the canonical interaction adds a sticky note to the board, while both let you add almost anything else to the board.
+Both also offer explicit team collaboration and meeting capabilities.
+
+[Excalidraw](https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw/blob/master/README.md)
+uses a web-based canvas for sketching diagrams, rather than written notes.
+So far, Excalidraw has avoided both becoming a complex tool and focusing on a specific kind of diagram.
+This simplicity makes it useful for whiteboards as collaboratively sketches.
+
+## Direct manipulation boards
+
+Modern web-based whiteboards’ user experience sets a low barrier to entry, by making it simple to put something on the board.
+They achieve this with a
+[direct manipulation interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_manipulation_interface)
+that lets you focus on the board, rather than their own user interfaces.
+
+Modern web-based boards largely avoid options for fiddling with presentation, avoiding the PowerPoint effect, where you spend 90 per cent of your time fiddling with cosmetic details instead of the content.
+
+Web-based whiteboards’ usability for basic use just about makes them viable replacements for physical whiteboards 
+(assuming you have the choice).
+However, once you start using them, you discover their advantages over physical boards.
+
+## Infinite boards
+
+On the Internet, you can have as many whiteboards as you want.
+While you probably can’t have _more_ than 
+[one physical whiteboard per person](whiteboards),
+you can have _one online whiteboard per meeting_.
+Once you get used to this, and have lowered the barrier to creating a new board far enough, you can have an online whiteboard for every discussion.
+
+## Inclusive collaboration and facilitation
+
+Access to a physical whiteboard - standing in front of it - becomes one of many power plays in physical meeting rooms that make traditional meetings disfunctional.
+Online whiteboards’ most important benefit emerges when multiple people participate in a discussion, and discover that they have equal access to the whiteboard.
+
+Online whiteboards enable more collaboration than physical whiteboards, as soon as you have more than two people.
+In particular, they enable meeting facilitators, especially when they add facilitation functionality.
+
+## Durable searchable boards
+
+After you’ve used online whiteboards for a while you notice another important benefit.
+Online whiteboards don’t need _do not erase_ annotations, because you can keep them forever.
+And durable whiteboards retain their value when you can search and browse them.
+Especially if you name them well.
+In practice, though, it helps to link to them from calendar events, so you can also use your calendar to search and browse them.