GUIMags. Magnets designed like standard GUI controls (text field, combo selection, etc.) which can be written on with the dry-erase markers. The idea is quick layout/design prototyping. It’s one of those “born out of necessity” ideas:
Our lead designer wanted to find a way to keep coming up with great interfaces after carpel tunnel entered his body uninvited. As he pondered a design at home, he used refrigerator magnets as imaginary interface controls, since drawing and clicking was painful.
A journey of ideas and tests later resulted in the birth of GUImags which turned out to not only help hurting arms, but helped speeding up the design process as a bonus.
The site also has tabs for GUIPanes and GUIBoards, both of which are still underwraps.
Not a recommendation or anything, these just looked fun.
I came across them at a review by Design Shack, which pointed out two problems: 1. the whiteboard has to be magnetic and 2. there’s not a diverse collection of color choices. The first assumes you’re working on an early prototype at your customer’s office, but it seems just as likely that you would be sending photos of the mock-ups for early feedback. The second problem doesn’t seem like much of an issue to me. These magnets are geared towards early and quick iterations through a layout design. I don’t think color choices are the primary goal.
This is a surprisingly simple but effective product. It looks like they’re a little expensive expensive, although there’s the cheaper student model.