GregBellDesign

So by now most of you have heard about Google Gears. If not here's the deal:

"Google Gears is an open source browser extension that lets developers create web applications that can run offline."

Google Gears is a fully functioning relational database that lives within a browser plugin and gives programmers access to it to it's structure. This allows for off-line editing of data and post-off-line syncing.

So the question is: What does Google Gears mean for Interaction Designers who design web applications?

As Interaction Designers, we will have to deal with making the on and off-line editing of web app data both seamless and easy to use. For me, this thought raises a few questions in terms of user's needs:

1. Do users understand the terms on and off-line?
2. How do we switch into off-line mode?
3. How do we switch back to on-line mode?
4. How can this modal switch be made with little effort?

I recognize that the current patterns in Google Reader and other Google Gears applications (Remember The Milk also has offline editing) work for people who understand what the technology means, but can my Mom or Dad use it? Will they understand what all of this "on" and "off-line" talk means?

The solution, i think, is to have all of this happen seamlessly. I don't want to have to specify that I am going offline, I want the system to know that I am offline. I want to have all of my data no matter where I am. I don't want to per-determine wether or not I will have internet access.

But for today... I love Google Gears. I think that it is a great thing for web apps and can't wait to see what comes of it.