One of the first tasks given to me when I started my job in the marketing department here at Small Dog was to create banners for the different categories of products on our website. Since the structuring of these was a bit complicated, I decided to devise a system that would rework the organization of those categories.
I started out by using just a pen an paper to keep track of all the categories, but soon I ran out of room. After looking at my diagram, I remembered a program that I used back in college for laying out the flow of a website called Visio by Microsoft. Unfortunately, this is a Windows-only program (and I don’t have Parallels or a copy of Windows on this machine), so this led me to find a Mac equivalent.
I stumbled upon OmniGraffle, which many of you have probably heard of and/or used in the past, as it used to come with a new Mac. It is a fairly useful tool for creating diagrams, whether you are in need of creating a quick website wireframe or a comprehensive technical diagram.
As I mentioned before, I first stumbled upon OmniGraffle when I was looking for a Mac equivalent to Visio. OmniGraffle seemed to have the tools I desired for creating website wireframes. Tools like shapes and lines that stay connected when moving elements around. My needs were rather minimal, but OmniGraffle offers so much more on top of that. It has a feature that allows you to automatically organize the document, set up styles for shapes, colors, and types of lines — it’s very feature-rich to say the least.
It comes in two versions: Standard and Pro. The Standard version has essential tools like mini inspectors, bezier lines and graphing tools but the Pro version has some extra neat features like combining shapes, support for Visio and SVG exporting, to name a few. I find that these extra features can be useful on a case-by-case basis but aren’t necessary, so for most people, the Standard version will suffice.
It’s meant for the Mac, but Omni has taken this program one step further and put OmniGraffle on the iPad as well. I think this is a great feature for professionals who are on the go giving presentations but also use a workstation in the office. Of course, integration is seamless between the two because they’re made by the same company, but it goes without saying that the mobile version isn’t as feature-rich as the Mac versions. You still have shapes, lines and means to connect the two — that’s all you really need. You can also freehand it if you’re in need of a quick mockup — speed and ease of use are your friends when you are on the go, after all. No word yet on how exactly it works with the iPad mini, though I don’t anticipate any issues since the screen resolution on the iPad mini is the same resolution on the iPad 2.
Now for the heart stopper: the price tag. What, OmniGraffle ain’t free? It’s true, there’s too much going in this app to warrant a $0 price tag, but I believe it’s rather reasonable compared to alternatives. The Standard version will set you back $99.99, and the Professional version goes for $199.99. The mobile version for iPad is $49.99.
I have been very pleased with OmniGraffle so far and I don’t see it disappointing me in the future. Because of the sophisticated features and overall business-friendly options, it’s a small price to pay for software that does it all — and well.
You can take a look at Omni’s website for more info about OmniGraffle or their other products. You can also get a free 15-day trial for the Mac version to give the program a test run before you commit. If you trust me blindly (why wouldn’t you?), you can find the Standard version here and the Pro version here or if you are interested in the iPad version you can find that here.
At the very least, if you are interested, I suggest giving the trail a spin — you won’t be disappointed!