Petition for an OmniGraffle based Prototype App - An UX Designers Dream
 

Hi,

I am an UX Designer and much of my work gets done in OmniGraffle. What I really would love to see is an app, that would extend Graffles wireframes into animated and interacitve prototypes. I am thinking of something like Axure with all the polish and ease-of-use the Mac OS X Platform and Omni software products can deliver.

An app like this could/should include killer features like:
[LIST][*]define a site structure / navigational structure[*]assign wireframes to site structure elements[*]define clickpaths (for demo / presentation)[*]pattern library[*]user defined modules[*]item catalog / inventory export to different file formats (spreadsheet, word processing)[*]make objects clickable[*]option to define transistions / animations of elements[/LIST]
If you are an Interaction or UX Designer or a Usability Professional and would like to see an app like this or if you have some more ideas about an app like this, please add your name and a comment to this thread.

Rerun

I certainly support this idea -- I do use OmniGraffle for prototyping and use interactive PDFs as the format. They are not ideal, but do work and allow me to stay in OmniGraffle.

You're right - this would be a dream :)

-- Morgan

please!
 

count me in!

I'd love to see this too, with all the bells and whistles, but I'd be happy to start with an HTML exportable version of the clickable presentation mode that already exists in OG without it being an image map :-(

Certainly an inspiring idea.

[URL="http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=35863#comment35863"]Some more of thoughts on the IxDA mailing list archive[/URL].

I'd love to see this.

Omni proto app . . . easily the best already
 

I would buy it, pre-release (!).

::::
Andrew Schechterman, PhD
LinkedIn: [url]http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewschechterman[/url]
E-mail: aschechterman @ gmail dot com
Phone: 1-303-886-2440
:::::

I agree!

I would love to see some of the functionality you describe into an actual Omnigraffle release. (+ 3 other OG users in my company)

Me too!!
 

It would make my year! and the one after this one.

I'm seconding this idea
 

I have been using OmniGraffle Pro for a long time now, but I find myself constantly longing for a way of turning my wireframes into a working prototype.

Come on. If any Mac-Company can do it, it is you.

I would upgrade to this in an instant. There are an awful lot of Mac users in the user experience field, and there's definitely a need for better interactive prototyping tools.

Much needed...
 

I have to agree with everyone on this. Having been a user of tools like Axure, I can see how a prototyping extension would really be great in some respects. When Flash Catalyst comes out, it will be very hard for me to justify staying with OmniGraffle if the product roadmap doesn't include more prototyping functionality than the current save as pdf/html, which is serviceable for some purposes, but very limited for prototyping. This is from someone who has been using and evangelizing OG for interface/interaction designers since v. 1.

I'm not sure if attention will get paid to this thread however. To whomever started this, be sure to also make your suggestions known via the Omni Support email address and point them here.

Agree. Omni needs an interactive wireframing app.
 

100% agree with this request. Also, another amazing feature would be the ability to manage website copy on a per element basis and then be able to export this into some type of format that could be used for marketing or editors to review. Developers, feel free to email me to discuss further.

Competitive landscape
 

In addition to looking at Axure, Omni should check out tools like [url]http://rapidrabb.it/[/url] This is very much like producing a diagram in OG, with options to add attributes to elements placed on the page.

The more I think about how we extend OG to do more and more interface/interaction design document, the more I wonder if OG is the right tool for the job. I don't think this is necessarily within scope for OG, and I've never heard Omni come forth and say this space is important.

Having said that, however, I can see OmniGroup creating a new product based on OG that does more than OG can ever do with regard to extending it's ability to create interactive elements in an exported prototype. If RapidRabbit produced their tool as an affordable standalone Mac app, I would seriously consider using it instead of OG. I would do the same if Axure produced an affordable Mac version.

So, I guess the ball is now in Omni's court. Do they think we're a sizable enough market to target as one of the primary use cases for OG? If they do, can they envision a product roadmap that takes our needs into account, e.g. as a paid product add on, plugin, etc. or by creating a separate product?

If Omni were interested in taking us seriously, I would be happy to participate in earnest to the discussion. When I design interfaces, I spend something like 50% of my time drawing on paper and the other 50% in OmniGraffle.

Go for it...
 

I would also love to see such a tool from you guys.

[QUOTE=jibbajabba;51905]The more I think about how we extend OG to do more and more interface/interaction design document, the more I wonder if OG is the right tool for the job. I don't think this is necessarily within scope for OG, and I've never heard Omni come forth and say this space is important.[/QUOTE]

You are right. Perhaps I was misleading with my first post. When I wrote that I would like to seem a "Graffle based tool" I was thinking of a new Software, not an extension to Graffle. But somethng which offers the same ease of use with palettes, stencils, alignments.

For prototyping, one surely needs objects with editable properties, these could be contents of DropDown Menus & Lists but also animation properties like Fade-In and -Out, Resizes. Moves and so on.

[QUOTE=jibbajabba;51644]I'm not sure if attention will get paid to this thread however. To whomever started this, be sure to also make your suggestions known via the Omni Support email address and point them here.[/QUOTE]

I followed your suggestion and here is the answer from Omni:

[QUOTE]Yes, based on the amount of feedback in that thread and elsewhere, we've opened up an entry in our tracking database (which conveniently has a separate area for product suggestions) for a prototyping tool of some sort.

I've added your comments there, and I guess we'll see how that fares amongst the other many product suggestions we have floating about.

Cheers, and thanks for the feedback!

Joel Page
Product Manager, OmniGraffle
The Omni Group
[/QUOTE]

Please tell everyone you know who would be interested in prototype tool to weigh in his opinion here. The more feedback we can generate, the more likely it is, that Omni will follow our suggestion.

To clarify: sending email is the way to get your feedback recorded. We browse the forums as we're able and respond to posts, but we don't guarantee that everything here will get captured.

[QUOTE=jibbajabba;51905] I would do the same if Axure produced an affordable Mac version.[/QUOTE]

So i'm browsing the OmniGraffle forums to see if i could find some opinions on Axure vs OG. I must say i am very impressed with Axure for Mac and how easy it is to create a workable wireframe with links, exported to HTML. I can basically put together a whole wireframe, link it up, export, upload… in minutes having the client interact with my new wireframe.

I do hope OmniGroup is paying attention cause the competition is getting closer.