Glass “whiteboard”

Back when I worked for Frontier/Global Crossing, my cow orkers who had window offices often used them as whiteboards. That impressed me as such a good idea that when I went to SunGard and had a window office, I started doing the same thing myself.

Today, I needed to hash out some big diagrams, transaction diagrams and XML with a couple of other guys, and since none of us had very big whiteboards in our office, I suggested we use the windows in the break room. The people I was meeting with didn’t believe me at first, but went along with it once I demostrated that it wipes off as easily as on a whiteboard. But everybody who came into the break room while we were at work stared in disbelief and made sarcastic remarks.

Is using a window as a whiteboard really that unusual?

14 thoughts on “Glass “whiteboard””

  1. I hadn’t seen it until i started working at Visible Path. I find it a very elegant solution, although it helps to tape paper (or stick some of those Post-it easel pad pages) to the back of the window.

  4. I guess they’ve never seen House…

    I mean, he doesn’t use the windows, but his board is clear.

  5. Related to this there was a gameshow once on German television where they would draw a picture on the screen with a point of light. You would then have to use a (erasable) pen to trace the picture and then phone in to give the answer to the rebus that appeared.
    While playing along I’ve noticed that people tend to freak out if you start drawing on the TV :-).

  6. Is using a window as a whiteboard really that unusual?

    No, not really. You just need some big headphones and be drawing tracks of incoming airplanes, submarines, ships, etc. and you’ll fit right in.

  7. Pingback: Rants and Revelations » And one month later…

  8. Fun idea. Have never been satisfied with the “erasing characteristics” of most white boards. Have looked for glass white boards, but a good sized one is not cheap (Pottery barn has a 2’x3′ one for $130). But after reading this posting, I realized –why not use to sliding glass doors of the office!?

  9. My best suggestion as an alternative to spending $130 at Pottery Barn would be to simply use a large picture frame with non-glare glass or consider finding a custom-made picture frame. The cost would be significantly less depending on what size you would want to use.

  10. Glass whiteboards are very common but it is hard to find one for non-commercial use. The common tv shows House and Psych both use them. They are made of glass and standard dry-erase markers work on glass very well. I am currently trying to find them.

  11. Actually, you can find glass white boards at IKEA for about $20 (2X3). I bought about 5 of them and mounted them next to eachother on one wall. Another thing I have done was to go to the local glass company and get a custom size. Although not cheap, it turned out very nice!

  12. We have been making these for a little while now – any size – and do them for kitchens and home offices and well as for commercial. We have created a process so they can be any colour plus you can have your logo or text or whatever on them. A bit more expensive than ikea but those ones kind of look pretty inexpensive too …

  13. The IKEA one is called the KLUDD. The pictures on their website don’t do it justice…it’s great looking, and it’s remarkable easy to mount to the wall, because first you put up the four corner “pegs”, then the glass slips onto it – beats trying to mark and drill while hoisting the whole thing!

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