Context

This task continues exploration from T420862: Early Design Ideation: Personal Dashboard + Homepage [FY26-27, Deepen Engagement 1.3].

To significantly increase editor retention, we must improve how new accounts get started and simplify how volunteers receive recommendations, track their impact, and stay organized What does this mean in practice?

• Personal dashboard for volunteers to receive recommendations and see their impact
• Modular and customizable experiences to suit diverse community needs
• Enable communities to direct volunteers to where they’re needed most

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

Task Objective

Define and prototype next-phase Dashboard concepts that:

• Establish a clear return loop for readers and contributors
• Reduce onboarding and navigation friction
• Support both reader, contributor, and moderator user types in a unified system
• Streamline post-account creation experience to support immediate action/engagement

Explore the following three areas to help guide initial Dashboard experimentation:

1. Onboarding simplification (Reduce and focus)

• Explore post-account creation navigation options
• Strip noise, reduce calls to action, and be opinionated about where people land:
• Consider "welcome survey 2.0" to personalize dashboard
• Reduce the welcome survey to only inputs strictly necessary for personalization of the dashboard experience

2. Dashboard layout

Evaluate and visually explore different dashboard layout paradigms:

• Dashboard as Launchpad (module-based, stable structure)
• Dashboard as Feed (dynamic, personalized stream)
• Dashboard as Learning Journey (progression-based system)
• Multiple Dashboard Sections (tabbed or segmented experience)
• TBD (some other layout paradigm that makes sense on wiki)

3. Navigation

• How will users navigate to the dashboard after first visit (on desktop and mobile)?

Emerging Principles for the Contributor Dashboard:

Content relevance comes first:
The value of the experience depends more on the relevance of what contributors see than the structure that contains it.
We should:

• Surface content connected to contributors’ interests and activity
• Use signals we already have before asking users for configuration
• Prioritize a small number of meaningful opportunities over large pools of tasks

The dashboard should guide
The dashboard should act as a map, guide, and matchmaker that helps contributors discover:

• what is happening,
• what is relevant to them,
• and where they may want to contribute next.

It should support exploration and momentum rather than forcing contributors into a rigid workflow.

Mobile-first means action-first
On mobile, the experience should minimize layers of navigation and deferred actions.
The first thing contributors see should already provide meaningful context and a clear next step.

Reduce cognitive overhead
Prefer the simplest possible intervention:

• strip noise,
• reduce competing calls to action,
• remove unnecessary onboarding layers,
• and be opinionated about what matters most.
• progressively reveal complexity over time.

Optimize for return value, not completeness
The goal is not to expose every tool or workflow. The goal is to create a reason to come back.
The experience should consistently reinforce: “There may be something new and relevant for me here.”

Acceptance Criteria:

By the end of this exploration, the team should be able to:

• Select or converge on a primary structural paradigm for the dashboard
• Define a simplified post-account creation and onboarding flow
• Establish a clear foundation for subsequent design and engineering work
• Have early designs to help guide community discussions