Designing a web app that will be used from distant geographic locations

Question

I have designed/built a number of small web apps. Most have been used by clients who operate in a specific geographic area, mostly within the same state/province. For these I would follow best practices but normally didn't worry too much about issues caused by distance from the server.

I have a potential client whose locations are spread out in several countries around the world. What specific considerations should I make in designing an app that will be used in locations that are not near each other?

Some of the more obvious ones I've thought about:

• i18n/localized strings
• Static content delivery via CDN
• Reducing instances where the client needs to communicate with the server
• Communicating with the server in the background while the client is doing other things

I feel that list should be longer, but I don't have the breadth of experience to be sure.

I am mostly concerned about the marginal issues presented by serving a geographically-distributed userbase that would not otherwise be high-ranking concerns for clients in closer proximity.