A site fit for penguins: Bringing WordPress to the Antarctic

Creating a WordPress solution suitable for the world's most extreme environment.

Project overview

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) is a member-led tour operator organization promoting environmentally responsible tourism in Antarctica. IAATO sought out Elementary Digital to create a site for its existing and potential members, which include a diverse audience of stakeholders including researchers and scientists, journalists, and parties to the Antarctic treaty which governs the continent.

The brief

IAATO’s requirement was for a website that would function as the public face of the organization, disseminating news and detailing its objectives. This would also promote its benefits for future members. In addition the site would be a dashboard for members and other stakeholders to access useful data. It was a requirement that certain information in the member dashboard should only be visible to members of the organization. Finally, they wished to encourage the site as a self-service portal, which includes use of the site in the Antarctic where internet access is patchy at best.

The solution

The solution needed to be up to the task of both acting as the public face of IAATO and serving as a membership site. We proposed a solution which customizes WordPress’s existing user registration system by integrating it with IAATO’s membership system. This had the benefit of allowing the use of any other plugins that integrate with WordPress’s authentication system in the future. Custom post types were used to upload content with member-specific permissions. A plugin was also used to provide the PWA functionality required for offline site access.

Illustration created for IAATO’s 404 page.

Single Sign-On

IAATO wanted their members to access exclusive content on their dashboard. This required developing an integration between WordPress and IAATO’s membership database using a Single Sign-On service. In this case the site acted as an Oauth “consumer”, allowing the Single Sign-On service to manage the member’s details such as their organization’s subscription. After being redirected to the login screen, a member can enter their login details which syncs with their logged-in state on WordPress. An administrator can control what content is visible depending on the type of member logged in.

The challenge

Ensuring reliable access to the site in areas of patchy internet access such as the Antarctic was a challenge. To ensure members could access data while in the field we designed the website to be used as a Progressive Web App (PWA). This involved configuring a service worker to save previously viewed pages and documents to the browser’s memory. This way, when the user tries to access the site offline, such as in the field, the browser can return pages stored in its memory.

Our impact

As a self-service portal, the site reduces the support overhead of the organization. Its offline capabilities allow the use of the site in extreme environments where stable internet connections are rare, such as the Antarctic. Acting as the public face of IAATO, the site continues to help the organization to defend the Antarctic treaty which preserves the continent as “a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science”. Ensuring reliable access to the site in areas of patchy internet access such as the Antarctic was a challenge. To ensure members could access data while in the field we designed the website to be used as a Progressive Web App (PWA). This involved configuring a service worker to save previously viewed pages and documents to the browser’s memory. This way, when the user tries to access the site offline, such as in the field, the browser can return pages stored in its memory.