Quote:
Originally Posted by avandelay
I don't so much find it "ugly" as bewilderingly complicated. I think right now it's trying to be all things to all people, with endless view options to fiddle with.
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In my opinion the reason people find OF unapproachable is not so much the complexity, but that it isn't "ready for GTD" right out of the box. The stock perspectives just aren't quite adequate to be up and running easily, so a lot of fiddling and forum reading is necessary to get all the right views and processes defined. Most people expect software to intuitively perform the basic task it's designed for with advanced customization being for those who see the need and wish to take the time.
Of course the problem with that idea is that many people use OF in different ways and use different perspectives to accomplish that. However, I think if OmniGroup really wanted to reinforce that OF is primarily a GTD tool (with the flexibility to be otherwise) then more effort could be put into the out-of-the-box experience to make it mirror traditional GTD principles. People can then use that as a springboard to a more tailored setup.
Part of the problem with that, though, is that despite being built with GTD in mind OF doesn't match it feature for feature. Many of the GTD concepts are implemented in alternate ways by OF (ticklers etc.). One only need look through all the questions asked and workarounds offered on this forum to see that.
Nobody has yet offered up what an "OmniFocus Lite" product should actually be. I think the only way to accomplish it would be to remove the ability to create custom perspectives and lock users down to a predefined set of hard coded views that strictly match GTD. Then perhaps some restrictions on syncing, either reducing the available methods or limiting the number of clients. Of course, even though this would share most of the code base with the full product it would still take developer time to accomplish which is something Omni appears to be short on. Would it bring in more customers?