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)

Non en.wiki-specific stuff
I'm trying to understand what of the new mockup could affect all mediawiki, i.e. what are the changes to the core signup page. The blog post, commenting previous attempts, says: «basic limitations in the core functionality still plagued that project». If I see the mockup correctly, what we're basically doing is rearranging input fields and making fields and buttons larger/more visually appealing. The space on the right, already usable with the current system message, is made easier (?) to use, or anyway to be used by design, with many new messages which by default are taken by "account creation ads". On top of that, all en.wiki-specific warnings are removed on en.wiki. Am I missing something? --Nemo 23:21, 3 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Mostly, yes that's right. Note that, if possible within our time constraints, we want to redesign desktop login to match this new style and the mobile login, which is in beta. As for non-English specific stuff: one thing this mockup doesn't include are the alternative language links (Arabic Wikipedia as an example) on signup or login. Also note that it's not just English that adds cruft to the MediaWiki messages in the page, the Arabic example I used and many others do as well. Steven Walling (WMF) &bull; talk   18:11, 5 November 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks. Sure, such warnings are used more or less on all wikis (although en.wiki has the nastiest ones), I was wondering how this project will affect/help them. Unless the test will prove that they're completely useless, some sort of replacement will be needed; and in any case wikis will want (and try) to adjust the text displayed in those boxes on the right, so this has IMHO to be taken into account too (at some point).
 * As for the language links, if you mean links to current wiki in another language, that will be taken care of by ULS so it's probably been wise not to include them in future developments. --Nemo 23:51, 5 November 2012 (UTC)


 * We're planning to make ULS a default feature, right? Daniel Friesen (Dantman) (talk) 00:46, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes. --Nemo 11:04, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
 * One possible replacement for the warnings, if necessary, are additional heuristics on the username validation. I wrote up some ideas at Account creation user experience/Usernames. Steven Walling (WMF) &bull; talk   09:41, 6 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I'll reply there. --Nemo 11:04, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Joining Wikipedia is "free"
This is an English-only issue, but I'm somewhat worried that the "Joining Wikipedia is free" text across the top is going to further confuse the "Wikipedia, the free-as-in-freedom encyclopedia" issue for new users. --Yair rand (talk) 13:02, 2 January 2013 (UTC)


 * The point was to experiment with pointing out that an account is in fact free-as-in-beer. This is a pretty classic technique for increasing conversions to registered users of a web service. Ultimately it is probably so obvious that it's not really a big help, but I certainly don't think it hurts. Steven Walling (WMF) &bull; talk   20:20, 2 January 2013 (UTC)