TrustRadius Insights for OmniGraffle are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Business Problems Solved
OmniGraffle is a versatile tool that users heavily rely on for a wide range of tasks. One key use case for the product is wireframing, roughing out, and documenting content models and site maps. This is particularly useful for the strategy team, as they can easily create workflow diagrams and produce detailed annotations that are difficult to convey via a prototype. Additionally, OmniGraffle addresses low visibility issues in web projects by allowing users to create flowcharts, behavioral flows, and site map trees.
The software serves as an excellent replacement for Visio, offering better visuals and flexibility in wireframing and design activities. Users utilize OmniGraffle to create process flow diagrams, business flow charts, and other diagrams required by their company or department. Moreover, it is used beyond traditional design purposes, with users leveraging the tool to structure texts such as lyrics, poetry, or novels to find the best flow and logic in their thematic elements.
OmniGraffle's flexible and large format medium makes it ideal for mapping out ideas and concepts that require content organization, such as messaging frameworks. Furthermore, it is a popular choice for technical documentation purposes where technical diagrams need to be created. The software also facilitates collaboration across teams by enabling the creation of workflow diagrams that can be easily shared with non-design stakeholders.
For website projects, OmniGraffle helps users chart out website and user flows through flow charts and information architecture. It plays a significant role during the discovery phase of understanding user needs and customer journey by visualizing user flows, basic journey maps, brainstorming sessions, and visual note-taking. Furthermore, designers rely on OmniGraffle to build wireframe sketches that are shared with clients during the initial project phase.
Overall, OmniGraffle offers a comprehensive set of features that cater to various industries and use cases. Its ability to address different visualization needs makes it a valuable tool for wireframing, diagramming, and content organization.
OmniGraffle has tons of uses, not least of which is as an image and graphic design tool. Not needing major graphic design software in-house (we outsource that work when it's needed) we use OmniGraffle to design graphics and images as needed. We also use it to work with vector images and stencils in order to create details for construction documents as needed. OmniGraffle just has so many fantastic uses, probably many of which we haven't even begun to utilize to the fullest.
Pros
Importing image files (jpg, pdf, png, etc.)
Resizing images
Exporting newly created and edited images and files
Cons
I'd love to be able to keep more than one of the different tool tabs open at a time.
The stencils are amazing. Would be great if a whole lot more of the free ones came standard as opposed to having to download them from Graffletopia or other sites.
Built in tutorials would be great.
Likelihood to Recommend
I know that OmniGraffle is not an alternative to Photoshop or even other graphic design tools. But I cannot stress enough how great it is to use as a graphic design tool for relatively simple editing and creation tasks. The fact that the margins allow for different types of measurements for sizing also make it great for determining image sizes. I imagine it's not great for the advanced image editing needs the tone would use Photoshop for.
We've been using OmniGraffle to create process flow diagrams to document software implementations across the organization. We always use the software to create any diagram required by the company or the department itself. It's effortless to use and has all the necessary options to create complete and understanding business flow charts and diagrams.
Pros
Easy to use, drag and drop tools.
Multiple pre-designed templates for fast access.
Cons
OmniGraffle is a chart development application, it does amazing for chart development. No complaints.
Likelihood to Recommend
We use the Mac version of OmniGraffle, and we can create different kinds of diagrams in a matter of minutes. Everything is as easy as dragging and dropping controls and connecting them with arrows or lines, OmniGraffle will do the rest.
OmniGraffle is my company’s tool of choice for creating workflow diagrams across teams and with non-design stakeholders. While the design team uses other tools, such as Balsamiq and Sketch, to do design-specific work, OmniGraffle is what we use to work with other teams, such as Strategy, Instructional Design, and Research. We also use it for mapping out content models, envisioning and designing frameworks, creating technical diagramming, and mapping out site maps. We use OmniGraffle to get on the same page before we get deep into our product design workflows.
Pros
The ability to easily map out process flows for users of a wide range of tech comfort levels—The design is intuitive enough for even people with lower tech comfort levels to visually chart process flows. We have never had to do significant onboarding for less tech-savvy colleagues—this is a huge timesaver!
Collaborative mind mapping—OmniGraffle is a great platform to get together with people and brainstorm ideas in the early stages of a project, then link ideas together to create visual relationships to inform business and product design decisions.
Communicating strategy to stakeholders—Communicating the complexities of a workflow to stakeholders is a lot easier and more effective, with a diagram that clearly shows the relationships between factors rather than showing them a PowerPoint that, because of its slide-by-slide nature, makes it difficult to consistently show how different factors play into an overall workflow.
Cons
There could be more scaffolding to support new users in getting to know how to best use all of the many features and tools it provides.
There could be more support for printing. Many of our process flows extend beyond just one page, and OmniGraffle is rather finicky about printing multipage documents.
We could use this tool more effectively if there was the ability to have real-time team collaboration. Document handoffs can be a point of missed communication, so it’d be great if we could ever have the option of working together in the same place at the same time.
Likelihood to Recommend
OmniGraffle is great for teams that seek a diagramming tool to create wireframes, process workflows, family trees, software class maps, and pretty much any type of diagram (I have even used it to map out my novel!). The learning curve is low and is a great tool for designers who want to collaborate with non-designer colleagues. However, it’s a less robust tool for design-specific teams who seek a solid wireframe solution. OmniGraffle is great for low-fidelity wireframes, but it would make more sense to use a different tool that enables users to create both lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes in the same tool. It would be even better if that tool could allow designers to create prototypes as well! But if diagramming is your main focus, then OmniGraffle is a solid, robust solution.
VU
Verified User
Professional in Research & Development (51-200 employees)
We're a full strategy/design/development shop, and our team is heavily tilted towards Macs. Although the design team has shifted to production-focused tools like Sketch for most of their early stage deliverables, the Strategy team makes heavy use of Omnigraffle for wireframing, roughing out and documenting content models and site maps, etc. On the development site, most of our architects have settled on Omnigraffle for technical diagramming as well — it's not the 800lb Visio gorilla, but it does everything we need it to.
Pros
For us, mapping and content model documentation are Omnigraffle's sweet spot. It has enough presentation/styling control to ensure a clean, consistent look that's compatible with the rest of our corporate branding, but lets us focus on the core challenge of communicating complicated relationships and processes to stakeholders.
For wireframing, a few specific features make OmniGraffle particularly useful. Its "sketch" line and fill styles make it easy to throw together some boxes-and-lines mockups that convey basic layout and priority decisions about a new design without implying a particular stylistic treatment. For higher fidelity mockups, it supports a large library of free and commercial UI shapes for OSX, IOS, Android, Windows, Bootstrap, and generic Web sites. Building out a set of shapes/components for quick wireframing and sharing them across an organization is easy, too.
Cons
Although the large library of reusable "shapes" makes it possible to build stuff like entity-relationship diagrams, flowcharts, and UML diagrams, it lacks Visio's ability to alter a shape's appearance/behavior by adding metadata to the shape itself. (I.E., changing color when a shape has a particular tag added to it). It is possible to add metadata to shapes, and OmniGraffle's advanced scripting support makes it possible to make custom plugins that automate color/style changes, but baking data-driven features right into the app would be a welcome addition.
Import/Export has improved dramatically over the past several versions, but export in formats like SVG and DXF is still a little too fussy to use for precise CAD work. If you need to spit out PDFs, PNGs, and occasionally import/export simple Visio files, it's fine.
Although OmniGraffle has a solid iPad version, exchanging files between the desktop and iOS versions requires "OmniSync," a passable but clunky file-sharing solution that's specific to Omni* products. I understand that Apple makes it difficult for non-App-Store products to use iCloud effectively, but it's still disappointing.
Likelihood to Recommend
Omnigraffle is great for documentation, mapping, flowcharting, and other technical diagramming scenarios. It's simple enough to bang out a quick illustration and powerful enough to build complex blueprints for complicated technical systems. If you need cross-platform compatibility, though, you're probably better off looking elsewhere. If you want complex integration with data sources (ala Visio's SQL Server integration for shape metadata), OmniGraffle also falls short — but those scenarios are few and far between in my experience.
I use OmniGraffle the same way that others use Micrfosoft Visio, primarily for technical diagrams for my documentation. In my particular case, I am the only person using it, and that is because I came into this position as a user of Apple products for years and continue to use it at home. This department uses all Windows notebooks for Windows server support. The bad news for me is that there isn't a version that runs on a PC, so if I'm working on a drawing in Visio at the office and want to take it home and work on it, I <i>can </i>import it into Visio, but complex arcs don't import cleanly due to its algorithms for computing sine and co-sine values during the import.
Pros
OmniGraffle is fairly simple to use, but the one thing I think it does best is working with curved lines, particularly if you are using some of the available arc templates. Drop an arc onto your page, then tell it the dimensions it needs to be, and viola! Done. Manipulating the arcs is as simple as clicking and dragging offset points.
OmniGraffle has also done an excellent job in stirring up the creative minds of many people who create templates and tools to work with OmniGraffle (not that Microsoft hasn't done so either), and managed to get the bulk of those into well organized repositories.
What it all boils down to for me is: it just works. One doesn't need to have a computer science degree to work with it either. It is as simple or complex as you want it to be.
Cons
The ability to import Visio drawings is important to a lot of people. However, if one is importing a Visio drawing that has a complex arcs in it, they are not going to import properly. You end up with a drawing in OmniGraffle that doesn't look like it does in Visio - the arc lines are all off.
If one has a very complex diagram that needs to fit on one page but extends close to the margins, you could end up getting a little frustrated because the program keeps wanting to drag another page into the fray.
It may be something very simple to do, but I haven't yet found out how to specify exact page sizes for my drawings. If I just take the default, I'll get an 8/5" x 11" portrait page and have to focus on ensuring everything fits right. On the other hand, if I create a large page to start with because I know it isn't all going to fit on one letter-size page, resizing the page when I'm done is not a pretty picture.
Likelihood to Recommend
As I said earlier in this review, OmniGraffle does an excellent job with arcs <i>if </i>they are created in OmniGraffle. The same is not true if the drawing I'm working on was imported from Visio. In that case, I need to just start all over with the arc lines, and that is not often a reasonable option.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
I use OmniGraffle to map out ideas and concepts that require a flexible, large format medium for organizing content. For example, if I'm currently using OmniGraffle to map out a messaging framework for internal use. It helps me easily link ideas together and create hierarchies, which would be difficult using a presentation tool like PowerPoint or keynote. If you need a way of getting abstract ideas on paper and exploring relationships among them, OmniFocus is a great tool for that.
Pros
Mind mapping. You can easily link ideas together and OmniFocus can automatically arrange them in a presentable format.
Wireframing. If you're working on simple design concepts, it's a great way to show ideas to designers.
Outlining process flows. If you're outlining a process, such as marketing automation, it's perfect.
Cons
No support for team collaboration. I would really like to see a way to share files to iCloud so that others can access and edit.
Better print settings. If you're trying to print a document across many pages, it's not easy to make this happen.
No ability to pre-configure settings. For example, I have to manually change the unit of measure from "inches" to "pixels" when I create a new document, would like the ability to change that fundamentally.
Likelihood to Recommend
OmniFocus is great for when you want to map out an idea or process and then share it with others. I makes it very easy to link content together and create clean looking hierarchies. However, if you're looking for a tool that will let you collaborate on design, look elsewhere.
OmniGraffle is rapidly becoming the modeling tool of choice for the organisation; we are seeing broadening adoption of the product across the whole organisation.
We were looking for a Mac-compatible modeling tool - similar to Visio for the PC - and OmniGraffle was by far the best choice on the market.
Pros
Ease of use and time to adopt software
Multi-device support
Scripting capability
High-end modelling product
Cons
More templates stencils and samples
Data integration
Likelihood to Recommend
If you're used to using Visio and similar tools on the PC then OmiGraffle for the Mac is a seamless transfer.
Has the same level of capability as any other modelling tool on the market but is more cost effective and has the added bonus of also being functional on iOS devices.
We use Omnigraffle for some basic early wire framing of applications and for creation of workflow diagrams. It's stencil libraries enable quick creation of diagrams and documents since you're not having to draw everything from scratch.
Pros
Creating diagrams and workflows
Creating Static Wire frame drawings
Creating Specification documentation for an application
Cons
There is no capability for creating prototype or interactions, I've starting moving away from using Omnigraffle for wire frames for this reason as there are other tools that accomplish this while enabling interactive features.
It is difficult to create charts
Stability isn't where I'd like it to be. Although I don't ever lose much work due to how MacOS autosaves regularly, I do see crashes and weird glitches more often than I do when using my other productivity tools.
Likelihood to Recommend
I think it is best suited if you're looking for a Mac native alternative to MS Visio. It does static diagrams and workflows well. It is also a good tool to quickly draw out a basic wireframe to use a quick first draft to convey an idea. However, I've moved on to using tools like Sketch, UXPin, and Proto.io for creating interactive prototypes and wireframes that can then be fleshed out into full high fidelity mock-ups within the same software.
OmniGraffle is used by the product experience design team to produce detailed annotations that are too difficult to convey via a prototype. Often the more subtle aspects of a UI, experience, or interface are difficult to convey to developers, OmniGraffle allows us to instruct them on the nuance of the design without overly complicating the prototypes.
Pros
Annotations - OG excels!
It is a very easy tool for users to ramp up on.
The ability to script and export assets from the tool is excellent.
Cons
It would be nice to be able to export screen assets directly to InVision.
I wish coding interactivity in OG was easier and simpler.
I wish the tool intrinsically understood the distinction between screens and annotations without having to add actions or settings.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you have an extremely deep UI with many layers and subtlety OmniGraffle is excellent for being able to detail all of the nuance and details. In cases where you have many instances of a single object with minor differences OmniGraffle affords the ability to easily identify the different individual instances and what the differences are.
I mainly use OmniGraffle in order to structure texts when they are in work in progress status, from lyrics to poetry or novels. It helps me to structure my thoughts and ideas, and to find the best logic in the thematics used in the texts. I can keep references to the topics I intend to speak about, such as texts, images or links. By reorganizing them in different ways, Omnigraffle gives me a global vision which helps to find the best flow.
Pros
Structuring a novel is a very difficult exercise, as it is the basis on which everything will be built. Omnigraffle allows you to visualize a dramatic progression, and keep in mind the various references and situations I want to see appearing throughout the history I'm writing.
It is often important to switch phrases or select different verses in a song, Omnigraffle makes it easy to visualize the different options.
Promotion is a vital part in the life of artistic projects. Creating a strategy and explaining it is easier when you can have a more flexible tool than PowerPoint for example.
Cons
Well, let's dream and imagine a 3D version of the software, which would allow you to have different points of view on a situation.
Several panels on the same page would be nice in order to compare different versions of a project.
A historical visualization of the evolution of a project would be nice too.
Likelihood to Recommend
Omnigraffle is a good tool for organizing ideas and thoughts, and visualize them easily and quickly. It is not a complete tool for the creation of texts, so you need to use other tools in addition to it. An interaction with writing tools could be an interesting feature.
