How do Omni do it?

[specialmoves]

We're all pretty much agreed that Omni make great apps, but how do they go about it?

We're a small production company working mainly on the web. We're really interested in production methodologies that help deliver the really cool, but really useful features in sites/applications. Something that Omni often do to great effect (the spacing guides & cut and paste alignment in OmniGraffle for example).

Has anyone got any insight here? Would especially like to here from the guys at Omni themselves.

Do you use user centred design? Genius design? Rapid prototyping? Agile development or a waterfall development methodology? Luck?

Maybe it's a combination of all of these?

I'm not looking for you to give away any trade secrets just to get a better idea of how you consistently manage to come up with (and implement) great ideas.

cheers

darrell

[Lizard]

We really don't have a lot of methodology. A lot of our ideas come from our users. Some come from a couple people talking in the kitchen while they make their frappa-mocha-lattes (or whatever their concoctions are -- I don't touch the coffee machine!). Most of the time we'd rather delay products than meet deadlines with something that's incomplete.

[Wim Lewis]

We're pretty syncretic when it comes to methodologies; we've never subscribed to a particular one. But Extreme Programming (despite the awful name) describes a lot of things we've found to work well for us, for example; we tend towards the "genius"/rapid/agile end of the spectrum, but as we (and our individual products) grow, there's an increasing tension between that and the predictability promised by the waterfall styles. Saying "we will release no code before its time!" makes the people doing release publicity unhappy.