Divergence - An OmniFocus Theme

A couple of years back I introduced my Divergence Theme for OmniFocus.   It was designed not only to be aesthetically pleasing, but also to enhance the overall experience of using OmniFocus by using contrast in meaningful ways.

I’ve been improving on my design over the past couple of years based on the feedback of readers.  MediaPathic generously took time converting it to grayscale.

Download it and try it for yourself

About the Theme

Visual design is not just about look and feel. It’s about using visual elements to emphasize the meaning of the content. I haven’t found themes which really pay attention to this detail as well as I would like.

So, as any obsessive designer would do, I created my own.

What the content means: 

• Available items should be unstyled. These are the baseline design contrast.  This is possibly the important change from the default theme, which uses unavailable tasks as the baseline style.
• Upcoming items should be highly emphasized in a green state. These are tasks which are at risk of being late, and should demand more attention than available items.
• Overdue items are bold and red, which immediately grabs your attention.  These are the critical tasks on your radar and should be done before all others.
• Unavailable items should be de-emphasized or hidden altogether, depending on the context.
• Completed items are demphasized with a strikeout. I de-emphasized them to stay out of our primary focus.
• Groupings get a distinct typographic treatment, since they are not actionable items.

What is included:

Included in the theme package is the theme file itself, which you can install from the OmniFocus preference’s window.  I’ve also included 6 icons I’ve created as replacements for the standard perspective icons using the Glyphish icon library.

Download the Divergence OmniFocus Theme

Feedback is not just welcome, it’s encouraged.  Leave a note in the comments.