[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #61040: Provide a framework for plugin onboarding experiences

[WordPress Trac]

#61040: Provide a framework for plugin onboarding experiences
-------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  jorbin       |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Plugins      |     Version:
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:               |     Focuses:  administration
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Comment (by smub):

 Replying to [comment:25 costdev]:
 > The biggest issue I'm seeing is that we're yet to reach a common
 agreement on the following:
 >
 > 1. Beginner users DO install multiple plugins every time they install an
 addon before they have its dependency, whether that's WooCommerce, Yoast
 SEO, Gravity Forms, or any other highly extended plugin.
 >
 > We have all likely worked with a lot of users of various demographics,
 yet there is disagreement amongst us. This should serve as a reminder that
 we should avoid extrapolating our personal experiences to represent
 percentages of users who do X or Y.
 >
 > We need data, which should be gained by #outreach, and should avoid a
 tone of "do you want this, or just want it to go back to before?", as that
 approach risks people opting for negatives just because they've learned to
 deal with them.

 First, I want to say that we're on the same side here. I absolutely agree
 with you about the importance of a plugin dependency system. We have many
 WooCommerce extensions in our business like FunnelKit, Advanced Coupons,
 etc where people may install our Woo extension plugin without realizing
 that the main Woo plugin is needed, and I would love nothing more for a
 better UX flow for this.

 However given the collective experience of people that are in this thread,
 I think it's safe to say (even without specific data) that far more users
 install a standalone plugin vs. one that has dependency on another. Of the
 top 20 plugins with most active installs, all are standalone. In the top
 100, only 8 plugins have dependency on either Elementor or Woo.

 Introducing plugin dependencies in core was done with the best of
 intentions, and I am all for it. But an important aspect (plugin
 onboarding) was overlooked perhaps, and this is leading to a less than
 ideal user experience for a much bigger audience than the one that were
 affected by dependencies.

 In the new flow, the screen doesn't reload, so the beginner user has no
 idea what to do next. There's no new plugin menu added and the wizard
 doesn't trigger either since the page doesn't refresh. IMO this leads to a
 far more confusing user experience for beginners.

 Andrew Palmer made a good video here:
 https://twitter.com/arniepalmer/status/1779802587644002461 and I do agree
 with his sentiment.

 Guided setups are a positive for the ecosystem because it helps with the
 ease of use of the platform. It empowers the non-techy user to build their
 website and take advantage of the full power that WordPress ecosystem
 offers through plugins. Adding friction here will hurt the overall growth
 of the platform as beginners are more likely to give up than the Pro Users
 when they get stuck.

 I'm only suggesting a revert here because there's no clear path or
 timeline that would address the regression that's introduced with the
 well-intentioned plugin dependency feature.

 Regression / bugs are natural part of software. We should embrace them as
 a learning opportunity to improve, and more importantly we shouldn't be
 afraid to revert to what was working especially if the new feature
 introduces challenges / friction that drastically alters an important
 workflow / aspect of the platform.

 Replying to [comment:26 jorbin]:
 >The question I keep coming back to in my head is "why are plugins so
 complicated that they require complex onboarding or configuration
 experiences?" And for these complex plugins, are they the experiences that
 core should be designing for rather than encouraging smart defaults and
 things that just work

 Aaron, I definitely love plugins that do one thing and work without any
 settings like my [https://wordpress.org/plugins/missed-scheduled-posts-
 publisher/ Missed Schedule Post Publisher plugin]. And I too reflected on
 the same question -- has WordPress just gotten more complex than when I
 started using it in 2006 that we now need onboarding wizards / guided user
 flows / etc?

 The answer that I came to was No - not really. WordPress itself hasn't
 gotten more complex. We as a platform and community have leveled up and
 raised the bar on what we expect to deliver to users in terms of User
 Experience and Ease of Use, so that we can continue to make WordPress more
 accessible for the larger non-techy world.

 In 2009, we thought it was fine to build Menus with Page Order attributes.
 Then we as a community raised the bar and added drag & drop menu, and fast
 forward to today, now we're working towards an amazing Full Site Editing
 experience.

 We should continue to raise the bar as a platform / community and build
 solutions in Core that helps others in the community to raise the bar for
 the larger user base.

 According to W3Tech, WooCommerce is being used on 13% of all websites that
 use WordPress, and I think we can both agree that it's no comparison to my
 simple Missed Schedule Post Publisher plugin.

 Not only does WooCommerce needs all the settings / features it has to
 rival with proprietary platforms like Shopify, a guided Onboarding Wizard
 is absolutely needed to provide users with the instructions to properly
 setup arguably the most important aspect of their website (the Ecommerce /
 payment features) -- and yes Core should have mechanisms built to support
 plugin authors like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, GiveWP, Yoast,
 AIOSEO, etc that are helping drive adoption of WP to the wider market.

 I am a big believer in decisions over options and smarter defaults, but in
 scenarios of powerful plugins that offer the flexibility, a guided wizard
 / workflow is needed for non-techy users to find the value ... and not get
 frustrated with WP leading to switching to Squarespace or Wix.

 I would love to get your input on how to simplify the payment setup,
 business default settings like address, etc with smarter defaults. Perhaps
 we can grab a coffee at WCEU or WCUS because I personally want to learn
 from your experience and continue to raise the bar on onboarding
 experience of our plugins.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/61040#comment:27>
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