Add user account button to mobile web header: Instrumentation and experiment setup for first iteration A/B Test
Open, MediumPublic5 Estimated Story Points
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Authored By

	KStoller-WMF
	Feb 21 2026, 2:12 PM

Description

User story & summary:

As a logged-out mobile web user, I want to easily access account creation and login options from the header so that I can quickly create an account or log in without navigating through multiple menus.

Background & research:

Production UX testing indicates that account creation is difficult to discover on mobile web. Currently, users must:

Open the hamburger menu
Select Log in
Dismiss the auto focused keyboard
Scroll to the bottom of the login page
Locate the Create account option

This multi step flow creates unnecessary friction in the account creation funnel.

A comparative analysis of the top 20 most visited websites shows that nearly all platforms display a clear entry point to account creation directly from the homepage (T410558). This industry standard approach significantly improves discoverability and reduces friction in the account creation funnel.

Design:

Before	After

Instrumentation:

Track the following events on mobile web:

Clicks on the user account button in the header
Clicks on Create account
Clicks on Log in
Primary metric:
- Account creation rate
Optional metrics, if easily instrumented:
- Constructive activation
- Constructive edit rate

Experiment set up:

Experiment framework: Test Kitchen https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Test_Kitchen
Automatic (Superset) analysis dashboard enabled
Control and treatment groups: 50% control, 50% treatment (experiment is limited to max traffic Test Kitchen limits)
Duration sufficient to reach statistical significance (end experiment date ~2 months after release)
Pilot Wikis:
- Hindi Wikipedia, Indonesian Wikpedia, Bengali Wikipedia, Thai Wikipedia, Hebrew Wikipedia
- Rationale for selection: wikis do not overlap with: T416100: Logged-Out Warning Message: Instrumentation and Experiment Setup for first iteration A/B Test, and these wikis are some of the wikis with higher mobile unique devices and monthly mobile editors (wiki comparison).

Release details

Experiment start date: March 26, 2026.
Experiment end date: June 30, 2026.

Acceptance Criteria

On Pilot wikis, for logged out traffic included in the experiment, on mobile:

Treatment: Logged out users on mobile web see a clear header entry point for account creation and login & have easier access to account creation via the main menu: T415647: Add "Create account" menu item to mobile web hamburger menu
Control: NO CHANGES

Events are correctly instrumented and validated
Primary KPI dashboard is available after launch

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out.	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	master	+89 -37
Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out.	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	wmf/1.46.0-wmf.21	+89 -37
Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment	mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaEvents	wmf/1.46.0-wmf.21	+77 -5
Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment	mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaEvents	master	+77 -5
Display user account button in mobile web header.	mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue	master	+54 -7
Zuul: [mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue] Add TestKitchen as a dependency	integration/config	master	+2 -0

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Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	None	T409236 [EPIC] Account Creation Experiments (WE1.8 FY 25-26)
Resolved	EMcFarland-WMF	T415648 Add user account button to mobile web header
Open	EMcFarland-WMF	T418053 Add user account button to mobile web header: Instrumentation and experiment setup for first iteration A/B Test
Resolved	KStoller-WMF	T423030 Mobile Account Menu Experiment: Investigate Sample Ratio Mismatch (Hypothesis: WE1.8.4)

Event Timeline

KStoller-WMF created this task.Feb 21 2026, 2:12 PM

KStoller-WMF triaged this task as Medium priority.

KStoller-WMF moved this task from Inbox to Product backlog on the Growth-Team board.

KStoller-WMF attached a referenced file: F71614120: image.png. (Show Details)

KStoller-WMF attached a referenced file: F71614118: image.png. (Show Details)

KStoller-WMF attached a referenced file: F71614116: image.png. (Show Details)

Johannnes89 subscribed.Feb 22 2026, 7:23 AM

Michael moved this task from Product backlog to Needs Estimation on the Growth-Team board.Feb 23 2026, 3:59 PM

One thought: do we also want to instrument the "Join Wikipedia" link on "Special:UserLogin"? I would expect that to have subsequently a _lower_ click-rate, because people wanting to create an account can go to Special:CreateAccount directly instead of having to go via the login page?

Michael set the point value for this task to 5.Feb 23 2026, 4:53 PM

Urbanecm_WMF moved this task from Needs Estimation to Estimated tasks backlog on the Growth-Team board.Feb 23 2026, 5:10 PM

In estimation, we discussed how this task is related to T415647: Add "Create account" menu item to mobile web hamburger menu (since that task asks for a competing action, which might affect the experiment results). It would be great to get clarity from @KStoller-WMF (but I recognise she's currently unavailable).

The estimate accounts for the fact that multiple codebases need to be changed to fully instrument and enablable via a Test Kitchen experiment.

Change #1240759 had a related patch set uploaded (by EMcFarland; author: EMcFarland):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Display user account button in mobile web header.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1240759

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 3 2026, 2:25 PM

Test wiki created on Patch demo by AAlhazwani (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task:
https://12353b1892.catalyst.wmcloud.org/w/

KStoller-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 5 2026, 12:54 AM

In T418053#11641558, @Urbanecm_WMF wrote:

In estimation, we discussed how this task is related to T415647: Add "Create account" menu item to mobile web hamburger menu (since that task asks for a competing action, which might affect the experiment results). It would be great to get clarity from @KStoller-WMF (but I recognise she's currently unavailable).

The estimate accounts for the fact that multiple codebases need to be changed to fully instrument and enablable via a Test Kitchen experiment.

Good point. I was envisioning both T415647: Add "Create account" menu item to mobile web hamburger menu and T415648: Add user account button to mobile web header being bundled in this experiment. But let me know if there are concerns with that approach. I see T415648 as the main experiment / variable we are testing, and T415647 as a complimentary improvement that fixes some long-standing bad UX on mobile.

Change #1248412 had a related patch set uploaded (by EMcFarland; author: EMcFarland):

[integration/config@master] Add TestKitchen as a dependency for MinervaNeue

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1248412

Hi @KStoller-WMF, I am good with bundling T415647 and T415648 together in one experiment. Thanks for clarifying.

Change #1248412 merged by jenkins-bot:

[integration/config@master] Zuul: [mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue] Add TestKitchen as a dependency

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1248412

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-releng) [2026-03-05T14:41:45Z] <James_F> Zuul: [mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue] Add TestKitchen as a dependency for T418053

@KStoller-WMF I have a follow-up question. I'm adding this A/B test at https://test-kitchen.wikimedia.org/create-experiment. It requires start date and end date to be filled out before I can save the experiment. We still have TBA for both of those dates. Any sense of what dates we'll want the test to run? Thanks!

(For now, I'm going to work around this by choosing a start date and end date in 2036. I'll change the dates once we know them.)

I made a very bare-bones measurement plan and saved it in Growth Team's google drive. It can be seen here.

In T418053#11678078, @EMcFarland-WMF wrote:

@KStoller-WMF I have a follow-up question. I'm adding this A/B test at https://test-kitchen.wikimedia.org/create-experiment. It requires start date and end date to be filled out before I can save the experiment. We still have TBA for both of those dates. Any sense of what dates we'll want the test to run? Thanks!

Given we likely have another major release next week, what do you think about March 26th, 2026 as a release date? But we can shift this if we think we need longer for code review, experiment set up, or QA - @Etonkovidova.

For an end date let's say: June 30th, 2026. Likely we will have enough data and make a decision prior to this date, so it's somewhat arbitrary but forces us to make a decision prior to the end of the fiscal year.

KStoller-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 5 2026, 4:26 PM

KStoller-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 6 2026, 11:04 PM

@KStoller-WMF March 26th, 2026 and June 30th, 2026 sound fine to me. I added those dates to https://test-kitchen.wikimedia.org/experiment/we-1-8-mobile-account-menu.

KStoller-WMF moved this task from Estimated tasks backlog to FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 5 on the Growth-Team board.Mar 10 2026, 4:58 PM

KStoller-WMF edited projects, added Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 5); removed Growth-Team.

Change #1240759 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Display user account button in mobile web header.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1240759

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 11 2026, 2:31 PM

Change #1253392 had a related patch set uploaded (by EMcFarland; author: EMcFarland):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1253392

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Mar 16 2026, 9:31 AM

Trizek-WMF subscribed.Mar 16 2026, 6:36 PM

EMcFarland-WMF moved this task from Incoming to Doing on the Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 5) board.Mar 18 2026, 5:12 PM

Change #1259074 had a related patch set uploaded (by EMcFarland; author: EMcFarland):

[mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaEvents@master] T418053: Track clicks for user account menu experiment

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1259074

Change #1259074 had a related patch set uploaded (by EMcFarland; author: EMcFarland):

[mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaEvents@master] Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1259074

KStoller-WMF assigned this task to EMcFarland-WMF.Tue, Mar 24, 4:20 PM

Michael edited projects, added Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 6); removed Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 5).Tue, Mar 24, 4:27 PM

Michael moved this task from Incoming to Doing on the Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 6) board.

Change #1253392 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@master] Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1253392

EMcFarland-WMF moved this task from Doing to Code Review on the Growth-Team (FY2025-26 Q3 Sprint 6) board.Fri, Mar 27, 2:13 PM

Change #1259074 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaEvents@master] Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1259074

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.22; 2026-03-31).Fri, Mar 27, 6:00 PM

Change #1264605 had a related patch set uploaded (by EMcFarland; author: EMcFarland):

[mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaEvents@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.21] Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1264605

Change #1264625 had a related patch set uploaded (by EMcFarland; author: EMcFarland):

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.21] Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1264625

Change #1264605 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/WikimediaEvents@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.21] Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1264605

Change #1264625 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/MinervaNeue@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.21] Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1264625

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2026-03-30T13:59:45Z] <jforrester@deploy1003> Started scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1264605|Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment (T418053)]], [[gerrit:1264625|Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out. (T418053 T415647)]]

Stashbot mentioned this in T415647: Add "Create account" menu item to mobile web hamburger menu.Mon, Mar 30, 1:59 PM

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.21; 2026-03-24); removed MW-1.46-notes (1.46.0-wmf.22; 2026-03-31).Mon, Mar 30, 2:00 PM

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2026-03-30T14:01:49Z] <jforrester@deploy1003> emc-wmf, jforrester: Backport for [[gerrit:1264605|Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment (T418053)]], [[gerrit:1264625|Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out. (T418053 T415647)]] synced to the testservers (see https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mwdebug). Changes can now be verified there.

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2026-03-30T14:16:42Z] <jforrester@deploy1003> Finished scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1264605|Instrumentation: Track clicks for user account menu experiment (T418053)]], [[gerrit:1264625|Display create account button in main menu when user is logged out. (T418053 T415647)]] (duration: 16m 57s)