Network/Connectivity Constraints
1. Availability
[What happens to the product/service when network connection is limited or lost? How is the error handled?]
Our world today is heavily reliant on the connectivity of our network, as this is where most of our data lies. Network, however, is a luxury in low developed countries and also experiences constant disruptions in areas where reception is bad such as lifts. Hence, our products should be designed to still be able to fit for purpose in these conditions. Below are three different solution options that digital products tend to use during a connection loss.
Availability: Instagram prioritizes their loading connectivity in phases from bare skeletal framework to text loading and lastly lazy loading of images.
Spotify on the other hand does not want to restrict music listening based on the availability of the network, hence they offer premium users the option to pre-download songs beforehand and use Spotify in an offline mode.
TikTok straight up disables most of their key activities within the product when there is no connection with a status overlay unless the connection resumes.
2. Speed
[How fast or slow is the network connectivity and how does it affect the service?]
There are services that depend on their whole customer experience on speed. As the nature of network connectivity is unreliable and unstable at times, it is important for users to be provided with the information about loading and expected load time to reduce their pain of waiting.
Speed: Google Drive uses texts of the duration of the wait to upload user’s files based on the internet speed and connectivity. They also designed indicators to hint the progress of each file and if there is any failure.
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