Talk:Account creation user experience

Previous ideas or stuff for the future

 * 1) Remove clutter of MediaWiki messages MediaWiki:Fancycaptcha and MediaWiki:email-help(-others) messages (ala ) and include mention of username policy
 * 2) Show asterisks next to required fields instead of optional
 * 3) Auto-focus the first field in the registration process
 * 4) Move CAPTCHA field below account creation fields
 * 5) Implement naming and password guidelines as tooltips on Field Names (or beside fields)
 * 6) Language tweaks with a very short word budget (list currently in Google Docs, needs to be wikified) Coordinate with Mobile team, as they will also be using tiny word budgets.
 * 7) Add benefits of signing up in place of removed User Policy
 * 8) Require email address to create an account, in the interests of increasing the "quality" of registrations over quantity

Additional variants

 * 1) Replace CAPTCHA with a honeypot. See also: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5309
 * 2) Utilize password recovery icon
 * 3) Login/signup detatched from Special page, probably via a test of mw:Extension:SignupAPI.
 * 4) Integrate create and login on the same page (Prerequisite is the above. This is not the design, but illustrates the idea: )
 * 5) Log in without leaving the page you're on - utilize modal window (Requires work on previous two tasks. Similar to this design.)
 * 6) Log In / Create Account order on every page
 * 7) Request password only once
 * 8) Allow for password unmask

Post account creation tests

 * 1) Adjust landing page (MediaWiki:Welcomecreation). Test at least two variants of text on that page aimed at driving certain actions, as opposed to simply dumping documentation on the lap of a new Wikipedian. This will be the next experiment once the registration process is sufficiently improved.
 * 2) Return user to the page they came from instead of taking them to a welcome landing page
 * 3) Add a 'return to previous page' link on the welcome landing page to take the user back to the page where they clicked the login button
 * 4) Ask people to do things upon completion (a whole world of microtasks available)


 * Form Features

The following is a laundry list of parameters of the account creation UI that can be modified:


 * message content.
 * captcha
 * form field dimensions
 * Honeypot vs CAPTCHA
 * email address field
 * form field autofocus
 * password unmask is availability
 * password is only entered once vs twice


 * Events on form completion (future iterations):
 * previous page link appear
 * Microtask suggestions


 * Other experiments where we haven't yet defined data needed (future iterations):
 * Login/signup detatched from Special page, probably via a test of mw:Extension:SignupAPI.
 * Integrate create and login on the same page (Prerequisite is the above. This is not the design, but illustrates the idea: [2])
 * Log in without leaving the page you're on - utilize modal window (Requires work on previous two tasks. Similar to this design.)

Browser matrix
We have discussed limiting the group of users with a test for browser compatibility, likely allowing the following set:


 * Firefox 12+
 * Chrome 19+
 * IE 8+
 * Opera 11.64+
 * Safari 534.47

Browsers that fail to meet the minimum requirements will probably be ineligible for the experiment (rather than letting them in possibly with degraded experience). Steven Walling (WMF) &bull; talk   20:04, 24 August 2012 (UTC)