Whitespace
a white-boarding system for tangible, work-from-home collaboration
Grace Widmeyer & Amelia Carpenter
As the world transitions to hybrid work, we are missing the kinesthetic benefits of in-person collaboration.
Whitespace is a system for virtual teamwork that translates key analog interactions - posting a note, drawing on a whiteboard, gesturing to a teammate - to the digital world.
Comprised of a notepad, pen, hub, and virtual software, the system is viewed through any AR glasses to produce an interactive and portable digital collaboration space.
The Notepad allows users to sketch a note and physically “post it” to the wall.
The act of “posting it” translates the sketch to a digital note, which users can modulate virtually and move around the board.
Orienting the notepad with the curved side down allows users to draw, diagram, or handwrite. With the curved side up, the Notepad allows users to type in comments, searches, and notes.
Just like the tray of a whiteboard, the Hub also functions as a pen rest.
The digital Pen itself is double sided and can be used on both the board and the notepad. The marker end provides a large-format feel, fit for the whiteboard, and the fine-tip end supports smaller sketching on the Notepad.
With a shift to hybrid work, we face new demands for portability. Our most important artifacts of work can no longer be stationary, they must be carried in our backpacks.
Whitespace leverages emerging technology and augmented reality to make one of the most cumbersome artifacts of collaboration – the whiteboard – as portable as a water bottle.
Furthermore, the hub doubles as a carrying case for the notepad and pen so all components travel as one.
Together, the components of the Whitepace system are flexible, portable, and powerful. They can adapt to wall mounting or desktop placement, home or office use, solo thinking or rigorous collaboration.
As we all adjust our lives in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so too must our tools evolve and adapt to meet the changing needs of tomorrow. Whitespace is the evolution of whiteboard collaboration – beyond the office, beyond the computer, into the fabric of our hybrid working lives.
