Bad UX in /import/:siteSlug?flow=onboarding

[daledupreez]

Context and steps to reproduce

As part of reviewing and testing #100603, I came across a flow that I didn't know existed: /import/:siteSlug?flow=onboarding. This embeds some of the import flow steps inside Calypso, before redirecting users out to a Stepper flow. The user experience is really jarring, however:

• The button colours inexplicably jump from my site's pink/red to blue
• The left nav disappears while the button colours are changing
• There are long load times and spinners for not much actually happening - I am just being shown a plan purchase page
• Moving Back in the flow ends up taking the user to the /setup/site-setup goals page

Screen.Recording.2025-03-14.at.21.25.22.mov

This flow was originally introduced in #85830, but I don't believe it has been shifted into general use.

At a minimum, we need to do the following:

• Confirm whether this flow is in use, and disable any code that sends people to this experience
  • Confirmed that there is no current usage: comment; paYKcK-66w-p2
• Once we've confirmed no ongoing usage, we should remove the flow, as we should put in a clearer design for this area

In the longer term, we need to work out how the primary import experience should work from within wp-admin. That work is being tracked in #95655.

Site owner impact

Fewer than 20% of the total website/platform users

Severity

Moderate

What other impact(s) does this issue have?

No response

If a workaround is available, please outline it here.

No response

Platform

No response

[daledupreez]

@crisbusquets, this may be something that needs to be added to Code Blue V0. We should be able to look into whether this is in use on Monday.

[ciampo]

As someone who doesn't have much context, I wonder if we can just remove the WP admin page entirely and link directly to the correct onboarding flow?

[daledupreez]

@ciampo, I am seriously hoping we are not sending users to this flow! But I agree that removing it is almost certainly the right thing to do.

I did some digging today, and I am confident we are not showing this UI to anyone. More details in paYKcK-66w-p2.

So I think we should remove it.

[fditrapani]

I did some digging today, and I am confident we are not showing this UI to anyone. More details in paYKcK-66w-p2.

That's awesome! Let's get rid of it as V0 of Code Blue and then as you said, we can tackle the untangling separate.