⚓ T415972 Account Creation: V2 experiment designs

⚓ T415972 Account Creation: V2 experiment designs
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T415972
Account Creation: V2 experiment designs
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Assigned To
AAlhazwani-WMF
Authored By
KStoller-WMF
Jan 30 2026, 3:49 AM
2026-01-30 03:49:38 (UTC+0)
Tags
MediaWiki-User-login-and-signup
(Backlog)
MediaWiki-CreateAccount-page
Design
(Incoming)
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 4)
(Doing)
OKR-Work
(Backlog)
Referenced Files
F72311696: account-creation-password-send-by-email.mp4
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
F72311548: Screenshot_1771932893.png
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
F72311457: account-creation-password-reveal.mp4
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
F72311127: account-creation-username-validation-warning.mp4
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
F72311126: account-creation-username-validation-success.mp4
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
F72311125: account-creation-username-policy.mp4
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
F72311122: account-creation-username-auto-capitalize.mp4
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
Subscribers
AAlhazwani-WMF
Aklapper
DMburugu
Jdlrobson-WMF
Johannnes89
kostajh
KStoller-WMF
View All 9 Subscribers
Description
User story:
As the Growth team, I want to iteratively approach improvements to the account creation form to allow us to experiment with changes that will help contribute to more newcomers completing the account creation form.
User problem
Account creation is the gateway to meaningful participation on Wikimedia projects, yet it remains an outdated experience in the newcomer journey. The current flows impose high cognitive load, present limited or confusing value propositions, and rely on legacy interface patterns that no longer reflect contemporary expectations. As a result, many potential contributors disengage before they have a chance to join the community.
Key Considerations and Constraints
Search-related limitations
While not a blocker for the V1 test, the presence of search on this page may be misleading. Under the new SUL3 authentication domain, search-related APIs and special pages are disabled, which currently causes search interactions to result in errors. See
T363695
and
T381096
Early learnings and open questions
Some critical learnings that could further guide this work are still pending. See
T402533
. However, early data suggests that the username field is a major point of friction. On larger wikis, approximately five percent of users (and bots) who begin the form encounter an error at this step. The current error message is also confusing for newcomers, for example:
“Your username will be adjusted to ‘_____’ due to technical restrictions.”
Opportunity for progressive disclosure
Consider whether small, low-risk changes could move the experience closer to a common multi-step or progressive flow, particularly on mobile. For example, could the form remain on a single Special page while revealing subsequent fields only after the username is successfully entered, without requiring a major technical overhaul?
Login vs. Create Account
The Account Creation form currently does not include a link to log in, such as “Already have an account? Log in.” Should we consider adding this affordance, or is it a reasonable simplification given that existing account holders are expected to know how to access the login flow via the main menu?
Dual-use behavior
Special:CreateAccount is used both by newcomers creating their own accounts and by experienced editors creating accounts for others. This dual use can create confusion and diverges from common web conventions. See
T284927
Acceptance Criteria:
Iterate on V1 designs (and learnings if available)
T408649: Early design exploration for Account Creation: V1 designs
Propose a reasonable and incremental next step toward modernizing the account creation experience.
Share early ideas with Growth tech lead and PM
Create follow-up V2 Engineering task
T419395: Add username policy popover to mobile account creation form
T419401: Add live username validation to mobile account creation form
T419413: Add reveal password action to mobile account creation form
T419415: Remove confirm password field from mobile account creation form
T419416: Add "email me a password" option to mobile account creation form
Related Objects
Search...
Task Graph
Mentions
Status
Subtype
Assigned
Task
Resolved
matmarex
T405054
Improve SUL3 Special:UserLogin and Special:CreateAccount interactions when already logged in or partially logged in
Resolved
Feature
matmarex
T284927
Special:CreateAccount should warn against creating a new account if already logged in
Open
None
T409236
[EPIC] Account Creation Experiments (WE1.8 FY 25-26)
Resolved
AAlhazwani-WMF
T408649
Early design exploration for Account Creation: V1 designs
Resolved
AAlhazwani-WMF
T415972
Account Creation: V2 experiment designs
Resolved
AAlhazwani-WMF
T418056
Account Creation: V3 experiment designs
Open
None
T422295
[V2 experiment release] Mobile web account creation form improvements + username TL;DR
Open
Michael
T419413
Add reveal password action to mobile account creation form
Resolved
Michael
T421119
Add Icon support for text fields to HtmlForm
Open
Sgs
T416666
Use Codex Field component (with Codex - inline -Message) for Special:CreateAccount validation
Open
Sgs
T419401
Add live username validation to mobile account creation form
Open
Sgs
T423894
[V2 experiment release] Minor copy changes & simplifications
Open
None
T424246
Instrument policy popover links
Mentioned In
T418056: Account Creation: V3 experiment designs
Mentioned Here
T419395: Add username policy popover to mobile account creation form
T419401: Add live username validation to mobile account creation form
T419413: Add reveal password action to mobile account creation form
T419415: Remove confirm password field from mobile account creation form
T419416: Add "email me a password" option to mobile account creation form
T284927: Special:CreateAccount should warn against creating a new account if already logged in
T363695: Create a Wikimedia login domain that can be served by any wiki
T381096: Hide the search form in the skin during login, signup, and other auth-domain workflows
T402533: Establish baselines for account creation behaviour
T408649: Early design exploration for Account Creation: V1 designs
Event Timeline
KStoller-WMF
created this task.
Jan 30 2026, 3:49 AM
2026-01-30 03:49:38 (UTC+0)
KStoller-WMF
triaged this task as
High
priority.
Jan 30 2026, 3:54 AM
2026-01-30 03:54:08 (UTC+0)
KStoller-WMF
moved this task from
Incoming
to
Doing
on the
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 2)
board.
Feb 5 2026, 1:06 AM
2026-02-05 01:06:30 (UTC+0)
Michael
edited projects, added
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 3)
; removed
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 2)
Feb 10 2026, 6:01 PM
2026-02-10 18:01:36 (UTC+0)
Michael
moved this task from
Incoming
to
Doing
on the
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 3)
board.
KStoller-WMF
created subtask
T418056: Account Creation: V3 experiment designs
Feb 21 2026, 2:40 PM
2026-02-21 14:40:37 (UTC+0)
KStoller-WMF
mentioned this in
T418056: Account Creation: V3 experiment designs
AAlhazwani-WMF
added a comment.
Edited
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:27 (UTC+0)
Comment Actions
wrapping this up! we've been mostly focusing on the username and password field, so sharing a summary of the ideas that we've been exploring in this space.
username capitalization
for languages that support casing, we could auto-capitalize the username after typing the 2nd character or on blur - and remove the “technical restrictions” warning message.
username policy
instead of directly linking people to the
wikipedia:username policy
we could open in-page a TL;DR drawer with the 3 most important things.
username validation
we could increase the timeout threshold for validation, and display a feedback during and after. more specifically validation happens in real time. after 250ms from focusing the username field the system displays a “Checking availability” with a spinner. After a 2000ms timeout or on blur the system runs validation: success is available, warning if taken, error on form submit if taken.
reveal password
we could display a toggle button to make it possible to reveal the password.
hide confirm password
if we implement reveal password we might consider to remove the confirm password field, thou this may come with a risk if people don't provide their email (which sets a recovery mechanism if they mis-typed the password while creating their account).
send password via email
we could provide an option to generate a random password and send it via email. it the option is selected, the password field becomes mandatory.
AAlhazwani-WMF
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Feb 24 2026, 11:38 AM
2026-02-24 11:38:57 (UTC+0)
Urbanecm_WMF
edited projects, added
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 4)
; removed
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 3)
Feb 24 2026, 5:41 PM
2026-02-24 17:41:00 (UTC+0)
Urbanecm_WMF
moved this task from
Incoming
to
Doing
on the
Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 4)
board.
DMburugu
added a project:
OKR-Work
Feb 24 2026, 5:59 PM
2026-02-24 17:59:45 (UTC+0)
AAlhazwani-WMF
closed this task as
Resolved
Mar 9 2026, 11:43 AM
2026-03-09 11:43:42 (UTC+0)
AAlhazwani-WMF
updated the task description.
(Show Details)
Johannnes89
subscribed.
Mar 9 2026, 12:35 PM
2026-03-09 12:35:36 (UTC+0)
AAlhazwani-WMF
changed the status of subtask
T418056: Account Creation: V3 experiment designs
from
Open
to
In Progress
Mar 9 2026, 1:58 PM
2026-03-09 13:58:27 (UTC+0)
KStoller-WMF
created subtask
T422295: [V2 experiment release] Mobile web account creation form improvements + username TL;DR
Sat, Apr 4, 2:21 PM
2026-04-04 14:21:01 (UTC+0)
AAlhazwani-WMF
closed subtask
T418056: Account Creation: V3 experiment designs
as
Resolved
Thu, Apr 9, 8:26 AM
2026-04-09 08:26:57 (UTC+0)
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