Design White Papers
The Reusable Nature Of A White Board
A white board can be a very effective way to organize important information in a central location. Businesses have used white boards for meetings and planning sessions for years, and they can be used just as effectively in a home setting. White boards are especially useful for lists that change regularly, like grocery lists, schedules, task lists, and other transient information. If you post a white board in a central location, like the kitchen, family members can use it to write simple notes to one another so that everyone is up to date on where people are and what they are doing.
There are several whiteboard styles to choose from, and many of them contain pre-printed guides to help you use them. One of the most popular styles is a calendar. The board is pre-printed with large empty blocks laid out in a calendar pattern. The month and days are blank so that you can fill them in at the beginning of each month. You can use a white board calendar to list all of the events that a busy family may be involved in. With the different color whiteboard pens, you could assign a different color to each family member so that you can see who needs to be where at a glance.
Weekly task lists work well with white boards. Choose a day each week, like Monday, and create a list of all of the things you and your family need to get done that week. You could create a separate list for each member of the family, with their specific tasks listed under their names. At the end of the week, everyone gets to erase the tasks they completed, while the incomplete tasks move up to the top of the list.
White boards are also well suited for keeping current grocery lists. You can purchase a small whiteboard with magnets on the back that would fit comfortably on the front of your refrigerator. When someone notices that a grocery item is running low, they can write the item on the grocery list right away. When it’s time to go shopping, you can copy the list on a sheet of paper and know exactly what you need to pick up. After you’re home from shopping, erase the items that you bought and move any items that were not purchased to the top of the list for the next shopping trip.
There are white boards of almost every shape and description available online, or at office supply stores. There are boards small enough to fit into school lockers and boards that are large enough to cover an entire wall. Many companies have designed white boards with different colored patterns and artwork on them to match the style of the room you plan to hang the board in. Consider purchasing a white board to help you accessorize and organize simultaneously.
Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust (PET) design in action