The online/offline transition
Now that we've designed the online and offline behavior, let's talk about the transition between these two states. As the ninth principle states, the UI transition as the network degrades should not be jarring. How is this reflected in our workflow diagrams?
As mentioned, an online functionality is highlighted in white, while an offline functionality is highlighted in grey. The transition points are the lines between white and grey. We need to think about what happens when someone is in the white space and their Internet connection goes down, or when they are in the grayspace and want to do something that is reserved for online use only. How do we be transparent about what's going on?
Being informative about what can or cannot be done
When people are offline, they may want to do something that may only be done online. This is a reasonable desire but we can't defy the laws of physics, so what do we do? There are a few strategies that we can take. Going from the...