My Opinion on Digital Whiteboards

MIRO is a collaborative online whiteboard platform designed for remote and distributed teams.
MURAL is a visual workspace that helps you design together.

Transitioning facilitation from the physical to the digital realms introduces unique challenges. It probably doesn’t matter much to the audience or clients if the content is handwritten or typed. However, for a facilitator experienced with in-person groups using analog writing and drawing methods, choosing between typing on a keyboard versus selecting a digital pen that replicates the analog choice for capturing each important point and idea probably does matter. A lot.

As collaboration tools, digital whiteboard programs are designed so that multiple, distributed team members and/or clients can collaborate via input information, move things around, add comments, etc. Because the common denominator of most attendees is a keyboard, the software is built from the ground up on the basis of using a keyboard to create word-based information. Yes, one can draw in all of them. But the ability to “draw” in a digital whiteboard is more of a side feature, not a primary function. The drawing features in digital whiteboards are minimal and sparse compared to a drawing program. To be clear, I am absolutely NOT bashing Digital Whiteboards. I think they are wonderful tools for their intended purpose.

It’s also important to understand that the “collaborative basis” is made possible by the whiteboard being “live” in the Cloud with all the attendees logged in or invited to the board’s platform. So the responsiveness will potentially be limited by bandwidth and ISP speeds. These may be further impacted by the additional bandwidth overhead of the video and audio feed used to run your meeting. This might affect not only the facilitator’s experience, but those of the attendees as well. It is possible to download a desktop version of MIRO and use the app natively on the computer but this only reduces the bandwidth implications, not the other functional concerns.

Here’s the decision tree that comes to mind. Decide if you want to: (A) draw; or (B) type. Then choose the best-fit hardware/software solution for the preferred method and learn crossover methods for when you need them.

If you choose to draw, use a drawing program with either a pen display or a tablet device that can connect and be shared in your web meeting. The time investment of configuring colors and brushes will make your digital environment very much like your analog environment. If you want to draw but also expect to move things around regularly, be sure that you use a pen display and either have programmable buttons or keep a keyboard at hand to type keystrokes to allow you to (L) Lasso the content, (V) Move the content, (S) Switch brush to de-select the content and return to the brush in use. (These keystrokes are based on Sketchbook Desktop and can be programmed into a Wacom ExpressKey Remote.) These actions can be performed in Sketchbook app on a tablet device, but there are no buttons or keystroke equivalents and would require manually tapping with your stylus for each step.

If you choose to type, use a digital whiteboard concurrent with your web meeting. There is no need to invest in a pen display. A graphics tablet (such as a Wacom Intuos) will give you the ability to draw lines, arrows, bounding boxes, etc. nicely and to choose objects quicker than scrolling around with a mouse. Alternatively, you could possibly do this with a touch-screen computer with finger or stylus. Be aware that you should purchase a “quiet” keyboard if you go this route so that the keystroke noises don’t distract from your meeting. The downside of this option is that the drawing aspect will be mostly limited to simple line drawings.

In closing, Visual Facilitation is special territory! In my research so far, I’ve not found software built specifically for this field. Each person has to consider their client needs, digital output requirements, and personal preferences and then let those factors guide their best hardware/software choices. If you’d like some help making all this work for you, I’m here to help.