Tidepool
Researchers lost field notes at sea. I built an offline-first app that syncs when the boat is back in range. Not one record lost in a season.
- Year
- 2023
- Role
- Frontend and sync engine
- Stack
- TypeScript · IndexedDB · Service workers · Postgres
The problem
A marine survey team recorded sightings on paper, then typed them up on land. Pages got wet, handwriting got guessed at, and a week’s work could vanish with one wave.
What I built
An installable web app that works with no signal at all. Every entry is saved on the device first and synced in the background once the boat reaches the harbour; when two people edit the same survey point, the app shows both versions side by side instead of silently picking one.
- Offline first: IndexedDB and a service worker, no network needed to record.
- Sync you can trust: changes are queued, retried and reconciled on the server.
- Made for gloves: big touch targets, high contrast for bright sunlight.
What changed
The team stopped carrying paper. Over the season, every record made it to the database, and typing-up time dropped from a day a week to none.