Improve discoverability of contribution options for experienced users in the new tabbed interface
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	SGautam_WMF
	Apr 9 2025, 3:44 PM

Description

Problem statement

Users with previous editing experience automatically land on the "View contributions" tab in the new interface, but this tab doesn't display the contribution options that have been moved to the "Contribute" tab. This creates a discoverability issue where experienced users might not find the various ways they can contribute.

Background:

We are rolling out a new contribute menu (T322740) with a tabbed interface containing two primary tabs:

Contribute tab - Shows various contribution options/methods
View contributions tab - Shows users' past contributions

Currently, the system directs users to different tabs based on their editing history:

New users (no prior edits) → "Contribute" tab
Experienced users (with prior edits) → "View contributions" tab

The issue is that experienced users no longer see contribution options by default as these options exclusively appear in the "Contribute" tab.

Proposed solution

Add a "+ New contribution" button within the "Past contributions" tab.
Update tab naming for improved clarity:
- Change "View contributions" to "Past contributions" for better descriptiveness
- Keep "Contribute" tab name as is, as it clearly communicates purpose

Implementation details:

Component: Button with:
- weight: "normal"
- icon: "add"
- label: "New contribution"
- size: "medium"
- action: "progressive"

Placement: Insert below user account information and above the contributions list
Spacing: 16px top/bottom margins, aligned with the content container
Behavior: On click, navigate to "Contribute" tab
Tab labels: Update to "Contribute" and "Past contributions"

Details

	Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
	Add "New contribution" button to Special:Contributions	mediawiki/core	master	+29 -1

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Related Objects
Search...

Status	Assigned	Task
Open	None	T286641 Entry points to improve discoverability of Section Translation
Open	None	T322740 Contribute entry point
Open	None	T287569 Guidance to the persistent entry point after using a non-persistent one
Open	SBisson	T391494 Improve discoverability of contribution options for experienced users in the new tabbed interface

Event Timeline

SGautam_WMF created this task.Apr 9 2025, 3:44 PM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptApr 9 2025, 3:44 PM

PWaigi-WMF edited projects, added LPL Hypothesis; removed Language and Product Localization.Apr 9 2025, 3:59 PM

PWaigi-WMF added a parent task: T287569: Guidance to the persistent entry point after using a non-persistent one.Apr 10 2025, 10:24 AM

PWaigi-WMF moved this task from Backlog to Incoming on the LPL Hypothesis board.Apr 13 2025, 10:34 AM

SGautam_WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Apr 14 2025, 12:37 PM

SGautam_WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Apr 14 2025, 12:40 PM

PWaigi-WMF triaged this task as Medium priority.Apr 14 2025, 3:11 PM

PWaigi-WMF moved this task from Incoming to Prioritized on the LPL Hypothesis board.

SBisson claimed this task.Apr 14 2025, 3:39 PM

SBisson moved this task from Prioritized to In-progress on the LPL Hypothesis board.

@SGautam_WMF

Add a "+ New contribution" button within the tab showing past contributions on desktop only, ...

What do you mean by "desktop only" here? Should it be visible on vector but not on minerva? Or is it more about the space it takes on small screen so only visible from min-width: 640px or so?

...using Codex components.

Codex is not yet available in this context. It would have to be a regular OOUI button but it looks similar.

Change #1136435 had a related patch set uploaded (by Sbisson; author: Sbisson):

[mediawiki/core@master] Add "New contribution" button to Special:Contributions

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1136435

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Apr 14 2025, 7:13 PM

Pginer-WMF added a parent task: T322740: Contribute entry point.Apr 15 2025, 9:16 AM

Pginer-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Apr 15 2025, 9:20 AM

In T391494#10740853, @SBisson wrote:

@SGautam_WMF

Add a "+ New contribution" button within the tab showing past contributions on desktop only, ...

What do you mean by "desktop only" here? Should it be visible on vector but not on minerva? Or is it more about the space it takes on small screen so only visible from min-width: 640px or so?

...using Codex components.

Codex is not yet available in this context. It would have to be a regular OOUI button but it looks similar.

Thanks for pointing this out, looking into it.

SGautam_WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Apr 15 2025, 1:31 PM

Thanks @SBisson that feedback helped me think through the use of button for smaller devices. Earlier I thought that tab would be discoverable on smaller devices but then I didn't think through range of them so yeah so updated about them in the task description.

@SGautam_WMF about the button style, you can see the options for OOUI ButtonWidget. The closest is "progressive" but it's not identical. Should we use it as-is or custom style it to be just like your mock up?

In T391494#10743720, @SBisson wrote:

@SGautam_WMF about the button style, you can see the options for OOUI ButtonWidget. The closest is "progressive" but it's not identical. Should we use it as-is or custom style it to be just like your mock up?

Sure, we can try using the progressive one and see how it looks. Will we be able to add "+" icon in there too?

@SGautam_WMF it looks like this:

localhost_8080_wiki_Special_Contributions_Admin(iPhone 12 Pro).png (2×1 px, 424 KB)

localhost_8080__w_index.php_title=Special_Contributions_Admin&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop.png (1×2 px, 700 KB)

Looks fine to me, can we try with normal weight of the text?

@SGautam_WMF yes, it took some specificity but this is what it looks like:

Screenshot 2025-04-15 at 10.10.16 AM.png (850×1 px, 195 KB)

SBisson moved this task from In-progress to Needs Code Review on the LPL Hypothesis board.Apr 15 2025, 2:20 PM

In T391494#10743913, @SBisson wrote:

@SGautam_WMF yes, it took some specificity but this is what it looks like:

Looks good to me

Novem_Linguae subscribed.Apr 15 2025, 4:49 PM

Nikerabbit mentioned this in T393455: Double <h1> on same page caused by cx-contributions-header.Thu, May 8, 8:36 AM

Nux mentioned this in T393857: Update WantedPages on plwiki.Sun, May 11, 11:51 PM

Change #1136435 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/core@master] Add "New contribution" button to Special:Contributions

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1136435

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.45-notes (1.45.0-wmf.1; 2025-05-13).Mon, May 12, 10:00 AM

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Mon, May 12, 10:30 AM

Nux mentioned this in T393886: Remove talk pages from WantedPages (missing pages list).Mon, May 12, 12:18 PM

SBisson moved this task from Needs Code Review to Pending deployment on the LPL Hypothesis board.Mon, May 12, 12:43 PM

Pginer-WMF mentioned this in T322740: Contribute entry point.Tue, May 13, 7:50 AM

SBisson moved this task from Pending deployment to Needs QA on the LPL Hypothesis board.Wed, May 21, 2:05 PM

Nikerabbit mentioned this in T323083: Drop temporary feature flag SpecialContributeSkinsEnabled.Thu, May 22, 2:13 PM

	F59200826: Screenshot 2025-04-15 at 10.10.16 AM.png
	Apr 15 2025, 2:11 PM

	F59190950: localhost_8080__w_index.php_title=Special_Contributions_Admin&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop.png
	Apr 15 2025, 1:46 PM

	F59190909: localhost_8080_wiki_Special_Contributions_Admin(iPhone 12 Pro).png
	Apr 15 2025, 1:46 PM

Improve discoverability of contribution options for experienced users in the new tabbed interfaceOpen, MediumPublicActions