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.

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

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Account creation is the gateway to meaningful participation on Wikimedia projects, yet it remains an outdated experience in the newcomer journey.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