Difference between revisions of "Designing For/With People With Low Bandwidth"

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Designing fo Low Bandwidth Users
 
 
 
Example use cases we're interested or things folks are working on
 
Example use cases we're interested or things folks are working on
  

Latest revision as of 21:45, 25 November 2019

Example use cases we're interested or things folks are working on

  • Low power, out of date Android phones used in Africa
  • Small lower power devices like Raspberry Pis
  • Distributed social networks like Scuttlebut
  • Mesh networks used in disaster recovery
  • Improving widely used website platforms
  • Improve online tools that were not built with low bandwidth users in mind
  • USSD mobile protocol for simple menus options over a dial pad (used mainly outside the US)
    • Used widely for mobile money/payments
    • Cost is high - 10-20k for each phone company
  • Compared to IVR voice menu system used over the phone

Types of solutions

  • Mobile - USSD, mobile money/payments
  • Bit size and graphics for web sites
  • Browser based - Progressive Web Apps
  • Offline servers
    • Large content like Wikipedia, Khan Academy, Open Street Maps, etc
    • Tiny server equivalents like Kiwix and the Offline Archive
    • Internet in a box, Rachel, Freedom Box, Bibliotecs that take these applications and bundle them together into local, offline servers
  • Local partners like mesh networks, local messaging services, Fediverse, Activity Pub standard

Most of the peer-to-peer technologies don't work in this space because they have a high protocol overhead that takes too much bandwidth

Development tools

  • Browser development tools can simulate low bandwidth websites
  • netdm simulates network latency

Barriers

  • Example of Facebook partnering with mobile providers to have data used to access Facebook be for free, but paid for all other web services

Sidebar: how mobile payments work

  • Started as exchanging credit for minutes on a phone plan
  • Evolved into sending money
  • SIM card acts as a wallet
  • Go to a kiosk and purchase credit that goes on your SIM card that can be sent to other users in that phone network
  • Being limited to sending and receiving money in a particular network is problematic