Check for unused scripts (such as hotjar.com) on our site and remove them

[fancyham]

Overview

We seem to have some unnecessary scripts loading and running on our site that we can/should probably remove.

In particular, I don't believe we are using the hotjar.com analytics package right now and that can probably be removed.

This will decrease our load times (currently 19(!) seconds to load the first screen over 3G), reduce power and bandwidth usage, and will also minimize unnecessary tracking of our users (hotjar is a user-tracking / 'heatmap' and replay tool)

My understanding is that we had a one-month trial and that expired back in 2021.

Action Items

• Confirm that we are not using the hotjar.com scripts
  • If we are not using them, remove the scripts
  • If we are using them, make sure the researchers know how to access our account and collected results
• Identify any other unneeded scripts and remove

Resources/Instructions

This issue is coming out of the findings from these two issues:

• Improve app performance #748
• Review app for low data, lower-spec device users #928

Details

These are the components of the first-page load — note the hotjar.com scripts:

click to expand

[staceyrebekahscott]

Moving to Prioritized Backlog, to be assessed once current Dev workload is completed.