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:

1. Why?
2. How?
3. How long?
4. Did it hurt?
5. Can I?

Answers: (1) Reach & accessibility; (2) Theme negotiation; (3) Astonishingly quickly; (4) A little; (5) Yes!

Les Lim
WEB DEVELOPER AT HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Minneapolis

Les is more than just a pithy aphorism! Once an organizer of Twin Cities Drupal Camp, Les has been a supporter and promoter of Drupal since version 4.7. After over a decade of developer experience for (seemingly) half of the Drupal agencies in Minneapolis, he now works on the Digital team at Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization that investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world.

https://2023.tcdrupal.org/session/less-more-adventures-text-only-drupal