Description:

This project focuses on a comprehensive review and redesign of the account creation experience on Wikimedia wikis.

Account creation is the first interaction many potential contributors have with Wikipedia, and the current flow is outdated, cluttered, and can create confusion.

For logged-out users, dense text, multiple warnings, pop-ups, and a complex interface can discourage registration. For logged-in users, Special:CreateAccount serves dual purposes—creating accounts for oneself versus creating accounts for others—which can lead to confusion, unintentional duplicates, and a user experience that diverges from common web conventions.

The goal of this project is to modernize the interface, clarify workflows, reduce friction, and ensure that account creation behaves as expected for all user types while maintaining necessary functionality for trusted users.

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Contributors/Account_Creation_Experiments

Strategic Alignment:

This project supports the Contributor Strategy by improving the earliest interactions in the contribution funnel. A clearer, modernized account creation experience strengthens clarity, engagement, and motivation for new contributors.

This work sits under the WMF FY25-26 Annual Plan Wiki Experiences 1 Objective:

• Contributions increase because volunteers are offered compelling opportunities and understand their impact.

Account Creation experiments are tracked under Wiki Experiences 1.8 Key Result:

• By the end of Q4, achieve a 5 percent relative increase in the mobile web account creation completion rate, supported by at least three controlled experiments that each deliver a minimum 2 percent relative improvement within their target audience.
• Details: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Contributors/Account_Creation_Experiments

Longer-Term Vision:

This project is the first step in creating a more intentional and supportive contributor journey. By modernizing and improving the account creation experience, we can more smoothly transform initial curiosity into sustained engagement.

Related Community Discussions:

• enwiki discussion about Growth features / Mentorship for Temp accounts. "There are IP editors who are very reliable, senior, and experienced, and have been on the project for many years, and even help out very effectively at the en:WP:Teahouse, en:WP:Help desk, and other forums with good advice for new editors, registered or not."
• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Forum#Testing_simpler_New_Account_creation
• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sj/Design_chats/Create_account

Acceptance Criteria:

• Document a brief communication plan each hypothesis outlined under WE1.8.
  • Decide on the level of communication needed: Tech news update upon experiment release? Local communication? Local communication on our Ambassador supported pilot wikis? Community meeting? Discord discussion? etc.

• Create a communication plan for Ambassadors if needed