Quote:
Originally Posted by BwanaZulia
Right, so they always focused on function over form and that is why we use Omni products (I own all of them) because for us they are tools, not pictures.
I just think they got a little too "designy" in this last round and need to go back to the roots of "functiony" because that is their strength and what has made them successful.
If people want pretty, someone is always going to out-pretty Omni Group, but they have always won with function and features, ease of use and cutting to the core of the task and leaving out the bells and whistles.
BZ
|
Looking more at the big picture.
I work as a marketing strategist and have for some years focused on the evolution of computing to mobile devices. As a company goal Omni needs to:
A. Create a product that functionally provides the best user experience
B. Develop a UI that best fits the computing medium and user expectations
The iPad is the first generation of an entirely new computing paradigm though admitably a baby step. One of the user expectations of this new medium is user interaction with the computing device. The goal here is to make the computer fade further into the background than it does in traditional computers thus providing a more human based experience. To combine this with function is a tricky balancing act with no large knowledge base of previously valid experiences to reference. Some attempts are pretty cool others are horrible. To see this clearly just download the various publishers first try at magazines to your iPad.
Having had all versions of omnifocus since very early on I think omni is on the right track with their approach of iPad UI verses functionality considering the whole thing is in it's infancy. Time and evolution will tell for sure but I do believe in the great importance of paying close attention to developing software to cater to this new environment as opposed to cramming the environment into traditional software.
As an example I personally have owned tablet devices since they appeared some years ago and fully understand why they never took off till now.