Network conditions affect your data fetching and caching strategy.
Questions to ask:
- Expected network conditions? (fast, slow, intermittent)
- Offline support required?
- Data freshness requirements? (real-time? minutes-old acceptable?)
Design implications:
- Slow networks: Aggressive caching, optimistic updates
- Offline: Service workers, IndexedDB
- Real-time: WebSockets or SSE
Example: A travel booking app for international users needs offline support. An internal dashboard doesn't.