Drupal founder Dries Buytaert once claimed that Drupal is for ambitious digital experiences. But ambition doesn't always skew large. While availability and affordability of high-speed internet access is improving worldwide, many still access the web on sub-3G connections, or under the constraint of data caps. With the median page weight across the web now breaching two megabytes, the digital team at Human Rights Watch wanted to chart a course in the opposite direction: find a way to deliver the full weight of our reporting, in as few bytes as possible.
In this session, we'll peek under the hood of HRW Text Version, a full-featured alternative browsing experience for HRW.org that's 1% of the size and 100% built in Drupal. We'll answer appropriately compact questions, including:
- Why?
- How?
- How long?
- Did it hurt?
- Can I?
Answers: (1) Reach & accessibility; (2) Theme negotiation; (3) Astonishingly quickly; (4) A little; (5) Yes!
