In addition to facing compatibility issues trying to implement the optimizations alongside the WooCommerce checkout, another thing that started bothering me was giving the control of enabling and disabling the optimizations to the user.
From the moment I conceived the idea of a WooCommerce plugin, I wanted it to be not only a channel to deliver the code but also a platform for store owners to understand the importance of UX in the checkout’s performance. Accordingly, all optimizations were disabled by default and near each control used by the user to enable the optimization, I included a ‘Why?’ link to a part of an article that explained the importance.
Looking back, I saw that it was a big ask from my side for the users to get acquainted with the ‘Why’ behind each optimization and then choose the ones they wanted to enable. Plus, just the number of options meant that users had to take that many decisions before they can see the plugin in action. And when presented with a lot of decision-making, we would rather abandon it than take the time and effort, especially when we are yet to understand the offered value.
Read on to know more about what happened next and the subsequent Shelving of the project. 🙁