When discussing about Homepage location, discovery and framework over at T215982 it was proposed to make the username link in the desktop personal tools area blue, instead of the current red.

The current behavior mirrors the standard wiki link behavior, displaying a red link when the destination user page has not been created yet, and a blue link when the destination user page actually exists.

With the addition of the Homepage, and the rewiring option of the username link to the Homepage, this behavior could be misleading as potentially the red username link can lead to the Homepage which is an existing page.
Making the link blue could also potentially help Homepage discovery.

Why a blue link should be considered correct:

• When the username is rewired to redirect to the Homepage it is actually linking to an existing page, so it should technically be blue.
  • Also, on the Homepage the tab link to a non-existing user page is correctly displayed in red, so the standard wiki link pattern won't be compromised.

Why it could help Homepage discovery:

• If a newcomer has basic Wiki experience they should know that a red link is linking to a non-existing page, and as a consequence they might not feel invited/confident to click on their username in the first place.
  • It is important to note that this is an assumption rooted on best practices, but we don't currently have data evidence that users would click the blue username more often than its red counterpart.

This change could also be a first move in addressing the issues raised in T212280

Specifications

• When a user has the preference on that reads "Default to newcomer homepage from username link in personal tools"...
  • The user's personal tools link on desktop should be blue instead of red.
  • The tooltip on that link should read, "Your homepage", along with the appropriate keyboard shortcut info.
• If a user turns off the preference that reads "Default to newcomer homepage from username link in personal tools", everything should go back to the standard red link and tooltip.