Progressive UI KITT

KITT makes it easy to add a GUI to progressive web apps

Progressive web apps are a fundamental change in how we see the web. In a way, they defy our expectations of what a website is.

When a user visits a website, they do not expect it to work if they suddenly lose their connection. Progressive web apps over-deliver on that expectation. On the other hand, if a user is visiting a progressive web app without noticing that their connection is flaky, they may not realize that the content they are seeing may be a few hours (or even days) old. In this case, progressive web apps under-deliver on what the user expects.

Educating users about how this new model for a modern web app works is a process that will take years. But communicating to the user what your progressive web app can do, is within your power today… this is where Progressive UI KITT comes in.

What is Progressive UI KITT

KITT provides two tools to help your PWA communicate:

A collection of common patterns for communicating PWA concepts to your users.
A JavaScript library that allows you to easily implement these patterns.

You can choose to use just one, or both of them. You can consult the pattern library for ideas, and implement them on your own. You can use the tools that KITT provides you to communicate with your users, but decide on your own language, messaging and patterns. Or, you can use KITT as a whole system to easily implement these common patterns, and communicate with your users through common messages (e.g. "Caching complete! Future visits will work offline", or "Offline. Changes you make will be saved for later").

KITT is lightweight and has no dependencies. It is easily customizable, and comes with many premade themes to fit any design (as well as instructions for how to create your own).