Google recently released an enhancement to Google Docs called Google Drawings. While you can use this is a kind of collaborative work space for wireframes as you might with Visio or Omnigraffle, I’ve found another use for it…

As a virtual story wall for distributed teams.

It only takes a Google Account, a few minutes of your spare time, and most of all it’s free.

Create a Google Drawing

Draw a large rectangle & create columns with the line tool

Give each column a name using the text tool

Find an image of a post-it (change the colors in an image editor if needed)

Insert the images into the Google Drawing

Create text box overlays on the post-its using the text tool

Copy & paste them onto the story board as needed. (keep the originals in the gutter)

Give it a name & share it with your distributed team

I shared the Virtual Story Wall used in this tutorial if you wish to get a better idea of the scale. It is only a guide, and you can customize yours with different columns and images such as index cards or push-pins. If you’d like to extend the use of Google Docs for your team, my next post in this series will include a sample Burn Down spreadsheet template.