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Ask Slashdot: Replacing Paper With Tablets For Design Meetings?
New submitter faderrider (3726665) writes I work in the healthcare design industry and our firm is looking to get away from using paper during our design meetings. My first thought was to load our reports and plans on a tablet, bring a half dozen or so tablets for attendees and somehow create a local ad hoc network that would allow them to view my desktop. A little more thinking brought me to consider the value of attendees being able to mark up documents on their own, or take control of what is being viewed to talk through ideas. Is anyone else out there doing something like this and if so what are you implementing? Specifically the challenges i see are creating the local network, establishing share/control relationships between tablets and managing any documentation markups attendees may make during the meeting. I am also looking at the Samsung 10.1 as the hardware but would be interested in any recommendations. I can also provide, most of the time, web access via my phone but would prefer not to rely on a service like WebEx or JoinMe.
You'll waste the whole meeting fiddling with the technology and getting used to the UI. Just use paper until the design is pretty stable, then go to the computer. Better yet, use a whiteboard. That's what they are for.
Paper works great. get better lighting and cameras to capture and share your work on paper. Paper doesn't crash, paper always has a hard-copy backup, and paper can be HUGE, which is great for collaboration. We use 24x36" sheets and stick them to the walls. There is no digital system that can cover an entire wall and give everyone a giant scratch pad.
As a UX / Product Designer, I've spent years and years taking down everything in notebooks, and doing collaborative design work on large-scale quadrile paper. Until about a year ago. I was getting tired of scanning in or completely re-drawing final product designs, and moved to use Evernote + Sketch to collaboratively develop & design software, websites, and products. What's nice about Evernote and Sketch is that they are 1) Integrated, 2) Work on Windows/Mac/iOS/Android, 3) Easy to use, and 4) Make sharing documents and graphics nearly instantaneous as long as everyone has network access. We've moved to doing all of our requirements and specs in Evernote, and using Sketch to get first drafts done digitally. We also scan in drawn pictures & other misc. materials to be stored in Evernote. It's a great combo & repository.
>> healthcare design industry
What do you design? Interiors? Landscaping? Workspaces? Networks? Something else?
Replacing paper with Tablets
How about in the bathrooms? :D
Pick up a $30 access point that supports WPA-PSK, put it in the middle of the table and only power it on during the meeting. Unless you have a specific need for net access it doesn't even need to connect to a WAN. You can buy $50 off brand tablets running Android from most Chinese manufacturers, pile them up and hand them out like coasters preloaded with the wireless key and Screenshare or Splashtop.
"Powers. I have them."
Boardthing is very exciting, but just coming along now. Mural.ly will let you collaboratively sketchboard, and has good mobile coverage on iOS and Android.
Have spent a lot of time researching collaborative sketching for design, and it's a real mess. There are some great collaborative whiteboards, but they're not evenly good on tablet and desktop, iOS and Android. Some need special ports. Some have presence and video/chat capability, but again, not evenly implemented everywhere.
Mural.ly would be my first stop, after a lot of research.
Looks like battery power will determine how long these meetings will last. Never had that problem with paper.
You know, Whiteboards still work really well. They even have fancy schmancy smart whiteboards which are networked. Hell, they make collaborative software which has some of these features.
Every time I see one of these things it seems like people are using technology for the sake of technology.
A whiteboard, an easel board, pen and paper ... all of these technologies still work well, and will continue to do so.
Or, you know, your company has much better infrastructure and technology than your phone.
If I was in a meeting and someone said "I will provide web access via my phone", I would have to start laughing at you and not take you seriously.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
You have left some important information off. Is the meeting being held at the customer site or your facility? Is there a need for people to join remotely? These days not everyone is in the same room during a meeting. I really think that something like Lotus LiveMeeting might work best. Remember a key point; the decision makers in such efforts are frequently technically illiterate. Keep the presentation as simple as you possibly can and don't forget printouts of the presentation that people can mark up by hand.
We use Google Docs in meetings for things like this, but it may not do the job if your collaboration is more around graphical elements. Multiple collaborators, no need for fancy networking or meeting software. I had hoped that I would be saying Wave, but...
It's a term you made up, to apply to a made up industry which fastens, remorah-like, to socialist government crap.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I have a client with a very fancy (and frighteningly expensive) Crestron setup, and nobody uses it. Too complicated and does not give repeatable results.
OTOH, for about $35 one can get a Chromecast and via their "beta" functionality export the screen of any computer running Chrome. Sure it's laggy and I don't think it does sound, but when someone just wants a powerpoint on the screen with no room full of people waiting, it does the job admirably.
Paper works pretty well for getting rough drafts and design notes and whatnot else. Then scan'em and do a transcript, clean up a bit, flesh it out, and you have a design document. Same with whiteboards: Take a picture, transcript, etc.
Where paper gets wasteful is if you have to produce N copies of design documents that're ream thick, for every draft. But by then I suppose you'll have a workgroup set up with some shared storage and such.
If that doesn't seem like a reasonable tradeoff, OP should probably add some more detail to the problem. Just what is it you're after, "be modern"*, or rather "have a working workflow"?
* Whatever that may be. The late E.W. Dijkstra, famous computer scientist, was known for his lucid writing, circulated in xeroxed handwritten notes. Easy now, don't let your head go a'splode.
Having tried similar rings, here are some issues we ran into:
1. Latency. Nothing breaks up a train of thought than having too wait while the tablet tried to draw on the screen.
2. Such setups ar e by nature 1 to many; i.e. only one person can draw while many can view. It's real hard for someone to make a quick note or addition like you can by walking up next to them, grabbing a marker and drawing.
In the end, utility won out over cool technology
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
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What is the purpose of the meeting? How will using a tablet vs using paper enhance the meeting towards the goal?
The hospital I worked painted the walls of the conference rooms with whiteboard paint and put out baskets of dry-erase markers.
There's a drop-down screen with a projector for showing a computer screen.
There are many advantages.
You don't have to have your computer support person standing by all the time for when contractors/ sales people get in there and screw everything up.
You can have multiple people/teams in the same room working on different approaches (different walls) simultaneously while being able to see everyone else's ideas.
We snap photos of what we want to go with and then edit the work in a document later (if we want to preserve the results).
I suppose people off-site could watch through webcam/skype etc.
Paper exists for a reason, people.
Can you imaging 10 people with tablets in a room? The sound of hammers and chisels would be deafening! You couldn't hear anyone speak.
Sounds like your just looking for an excuse to get some new gadgets. Whiteboard + Digital Camera - job done. Or if you want to get really funky howabout an interactive whiteboard? N
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Stop, just stop,
I do meetings like this ALL DAY LONG. No offense, but there's always someone like you that wants to introduce some new technology that is supposed to make us so much more efficient. Instead we spend half of every meeting trying to get that new tech working.
The best way to lead a meeting that I've used:
A conference room big enough for everyone.
An overhead projector hooked up to a computer.
Remote into your personal workstation from that computer.
Have project goals in whatever tool you use at your company. Personally, I prefer a shared spreadsheet, either Excel or Google docs.
Avoid large project management software packages because they require everyone that needs to see them to have a license. They rarely do.
Log minutes in a text document that can track changes (word or whatever)
If there are people not in the room you can share your desktop with them have have a conference bridge the can call into for audio.
Discourage using whiteboards for the sake of your remote users. Also, you cant save whiteboards. I had ours taken out years ago.
PAINT actually comes in handy if you get fluent in it. I can do some pretty complicated flowcharts using it, very quickly... then later put them into visio so they look nice and are editable. I'm actually vision certified and can use it fluently. But I can do a flowchart in Paint in about 1/10th the time. Box, Line, Circle, Text, done! It doesn't look great, but this is a meeting not an art studio.
Now the person LEADING the meeting is not the person at the keyboard.
"Charlie, bring up the requirements. Thanks..." etc...
The leader, leads the person at the keyboard. The person at the keyboard is only focused on having the correct things up, and logging of whats decided.
When you're all done, you send everything (or a link to everything) out to everyone that was there with a statement like "This is the result of our meeting, please review" etc... so corrections or clarifications can be made. Changes should be "requested" not simply made without talking to anyone.
I know it's clunky, but it works. I've tried damned near everything. We have a lot of managers that like to fall for online marketing so every few months there's a new initiative. I'll keep letting them bring the stuff up and we can keep trying. I imagine one day there will be some new neat way of doing things. But it's not here yet, and tablets are certainly not going to do it.
I completely agree. The problem with a bunch of tablets is that everyone's off looking at different things. With a whiteboard, you can much more easily tell who's paying attention to the discussion vs. reading their e-mail.
You want to be able to save what was discussed? Bring a camera. The important thing is to take the picture without a flash from a stable location. You might have to experiment with where to take the picture from, so you don't get too much glare from the lighting in the room.
Sometimes you need to show something that you don't want to draw yourself -- that's where the projector comes in. Although whiteboards don't make the best projection surfaces (due to glare issues), you can then mark 'em up w/ the pens, then take a picture so you have notes for later.
If you need to *also* take a set of more permanent notes while you're working, either get a large pad of paper that you can keep to the side of the board. (I like the ones that are also giant Post-It notes) or a second projector w/ someone typing up notes as you go.
I'm not a fan of 'smart whiteboards' as I've heard nothing but bad things about them. I've probably been to more than a dozen conference rooms, and when I mention the one sitting against a wall, I'm told it's either broken, or a pain to use. (the one exception was an elementary school, which we only used it as a projector). The only advantage that I'm aware of is for when you're having a meeting that has participants in multiple places -- which I've never had to deal with.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Nothing beats post it notes on windows, doors, other people's foreheads to get the creative juices flowing.
I've only seen this technique described in one of those all hands employee training meetings. You know the type, a useless meeting that is a mandatory attendance training session. Never once seen post its used in any meetings after that. What a waste of money.
our firm is looking to get away from using paper during our design meetings
Why?
What problem are you trying to solve? Without understanding the problem, nobody can provide pros/cons or cost/benefit of alternatives, much less come up with a solution to...?
Once you actually identify the problem, the solution might become self-evident. But just listing your ideas and seeing if others have implemented things similar to your ideas won't resolve the circumstance.
(Meanwhile, perhaps quit and find a job outside of the design field, a field where identifying and clearly communicating problems is key to coming up with designs to resolve said problems. My guess is sales might be a better fit, given the suggestion of throwing hardware at people being a benefit, for no apparent reason.)
Seriously... paper is the superior alternative here. It doesn't interrupt your and your coworkers' train of thought, it has backup, it is the fastest way to collaboratively design and modify designs... and it has the added advantage of being unspyable by the NSA, GCHQ, the Chinese, or other industrial espionage outfits who rely on ElInt. Prepare your designs on paper. There'll be enough time to translate your final design on a computer and CC the NSA and competition later.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Why not get a document camera that can record still images to an SD card?
Elmo 1341-64 model Classroom Doc-Tor AP TT-12i Interactive Document Camera and ASK Proxima C3327W-A LCD Portable Projector Bundle System
There are also document cameras that can record full-motion video. The model I've linked to is somewhat expensive but there are cheaper options available.
I would suggest using tech in 2 different groups
1 where it is absolutely needed: As you can see in this video patients that have a combined Coughing Fit and Projectile Vomit episode are spraying material beyond ....
2 Only when you can justify putting said tech in a BURN BAG with the rest of the stuff from case 1
just remember paper can be put in a Burn Bag without having to file an EPA damage report.
If you actually need to use tech then plan on having meetings to
1 agree on a solution
2 actually implement said solution
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I see a lot of people suggesting that you use a whiteboard and then use a digital camera to take pictures of the whiteboard. That might work as a low-budget solution, but if you have some money to spend and authorization to spend it, just get a document camera. You probably already have a digital projector in your meeting room. With a document camera, you can project anything on the screen. Many document cameras have built-in features for recording images or video, and you can also use it in conjunction with a lecture capture system if your meeting has remote participants or if you need to give an online presentation in that room.
Low-budget option: IPEVO Point 2 View USB Camera
Mid-budget option: Elmo MO-1 Visual Presenter
High-budget option: Elmo TT-12 Document Camera
We tried something similar. We ended up dropping it because we couldn't justify the cost. Each ipad costs around 20,000 printed pages for the hardware alone. That's before labor and ancillary software licensing.
I find being offended by me offensive.
Design discussions proceed fast and with dozens of suggestions. Post-it notes and yellow pads are extremely quick and if a partner wants a copy of your notes, a cellphone camera shot will do it pronto.
Have a request sheet for those who want copies of each document. Catch is that you get "charged" for the paper you consume, with the charges coming out of a special "Think of the Children" end-of-the-year bonus.
Paper consumption would drop to almost zero.
I come here for the love
Uhm People may have been using black boards since 1534, butt he first whiteboards came out in the 1960's and were still not in much use in the early 1990's.
A coworker put "tablet" on the office supplies wish list, hoping to get a tablet of paper on which to take notes at meetings. A Galaxy Note 10 showed up the next week. I guess he was ahead of the curve on this idea.
1. Create an intranet for collaboration. There are numerous open source projects and proprietary products that can make collaborating between tablets very easy. Some allow easy customization to generation tracking or forms systems to allow you to process and share data instead of using spreadsheet or word processing applications.
2. Make sure you have a nice stylus with palm recognition and pressure sensitivity. Adonit's products for iPad, Samsung or Microsoft's own products are great as well.
3. Use Screenleap to share a desktop with several tablets. It has HTML5 support, is pretty cheap (pay as you go) and very well made API if you want to integrate it with your intranet.
4. Stick to open standards. Use established Internet standards like HTML5, PNG or SIP, and not browser-specific features or plugins, WebM or WebRTC.
5. Do not use a program like Evernote or OneNote, when you can just as easily use iOS or Android's built in handwriting systems to just insert text into documents or web-forms.
6. Buy plenty of power chargers.
7. Invest in wireless access points that allow for two gigabit up-links so you can take full advantage of 802.11ac. Max theoretical speed is around 7 Gbits.
8. Do not buy the cell modem version of a tablet unless you are off-site constantly or have a lot of transmissions when off-site. Otherwise, rely on smartphone data sharing, shared mobile hotspot devices or local wireless.
9. Make sure any design/paint/doodling app you decide to standardize on has versioning built-in so you can easily undo mistakes, because you will be making a lot of mistakes.
10. Recognize that the first six months will most likely be frustrating, but by month five you will be working as fast as paper and after month six you will be saving time.
You don't mention any problem with paper and yet you wish to spend what will be a considerable sum up front (and in follow-on support) to become 'paperless'.
Is the reflective of your healthcare 'vision'? Is healthcare to you simply the provision of services without regard to effectiveness, efficiency, or cost? Maybe you should get in to fashion design instead?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
A large company I know does dozens of design meetings (for supermarkets) with a new group of people in each meeting. Instructions go out on paper before and during the meeting. Responses are entered into pre-structured Excel spreadsheets. The meeting manager collects the spreadsheet responses. has code to analyze each response, keeps all the data for central use, and returns an analysis to each participant. Its pretty automated, but relies on 'ancient' technology for input. They also use yellow stickies and camera phones a lot.
Surface. Yep, Microsoft's Surface, particularly the new Pro 3 running OneNote allows real time note taking with a very good quality stylus, instant on (click the pen and a new page opens ready to work, even if you're tablet is locked - a stroke of genius), you can pull in and cross reference Word docs, PPTs, web pages, etc. and the whole is synced real time back end to other devices. Need to take a photo of notes on a whiteboard, use the OfficeLens app on your phone and it gets sent to OneNote, optimized (reflections, stuff of the board, etc. eliminated) and does an OCR of what's there if the handwriting is half decent. I use this every day - I manage or participate in half a dozen different types of meetings every day. Fan boy? Of this product, yup. OneNote on a tablet was always good but MSFT treated it like a poor cousin - they finally understand the potential and have provided a kick ass product for EXACTLY this niche. There is no other product close to Surface for responding to this kind of usage scenario. And if just f^&*ing works. Really.