Why “Offline Mode” should be more than just a line-item in your software’s feature grid

Making sure your Cloud-based software tool is still useful when there’s no Cloud isn’t just good design, it’s good business.

Photo by Aaron Dowd on Unsplash

I live on an island.

Not in the metaphorical or transcendental sense.

I actually live on a fucking island.

Bainbridge Island is a quaint little rock 35 minutes across the water from downtown Seattle. If you’ve never visited Seattle, you should. And if you live in Seattle but have never taken a ferry ride, Jibbers Crabst what are you waiting for?

It’s fantastic. Best commute in the nation.

But it does leave a few things to be desired…

• You “live and die” by the ferry schedule.
• Tourist season can be challenging — c’mon, folks, remember that this is a daily commute for many of us, so maybe pause on the selfies and clear the way. Oh, and, you’re in my seat.
• The coffee is… hot.
• Most of all, internet connectivity during the crossing is mediocre, at best. Most times, it’s a dead-zone. And no, there’s no wi-fi on the ferries. Used to be, but it was basically a glorified 4G hotspot that never really worked.

And yes, I know that 5G is coming. Hopefully soon.

And yes, always-on-connected-everywhere is the fashionable trend.

And yes, I mostly am on-board with that (boat pun!)…

…mostly.

While I’ve traditionally used my offline time on the boat to catch up on reading, scrub my inbox, or write pithy little posts like these, lately I’ve been experimenting with mind-mapping, decision-frameworks, and flow-focus techniques — and trying out various SW tools that facilitate those techniques.

Most of them (at least the ones that don’t cost $200/year to use) suffer from one key flaw from my perspective: NO. TRUE. OFFLINE. MODE.

Look, I get that always-on-connectivity is the “in” thing right now. But not everyone who wants to use your tool will be online 100% of the time. Some people’s jobs…