I definitely like the arrangement of that suggested login page, but I'd suggest going one further. My reasoning is, I believe there's a bit of a discontinuity that can cause confusion if a new member is required to start filling in the login fields, but then has to *change* to continue on to a "separate" form to fill in more information.

Here's my justification: On almost all websites, the convention is "one form, one submit button". But the MediaWiki login page has TWO buttons (in two different parts of the page) for TWO different functions. I think it might make a lot more sense to have to separate forms, presented on the same page, but in separate views via JavaScript -- the same way the various categories of personal preferences are presented. There could be a view for logging in (and this would be the default), then two prominent links for either creating a new account, or retrieving a lost password.

Unfortunately, I know very little about JavaScript. I could probably whip up a demo if need be, but I can't guarantee it'll be that pretty, or that I can do it very quickly. ;-)

Dan Carlson Memory Alpha: A Star Trek WikiWiki http://www.memory-alpha.org/

On Jun 29, 2005, at 9:37 AM, Phil Boswell wrote:

"Tony Wilson" mediawiki@redhill.net.au wrote in message news:20050628154047.ha07dhqlwxwks08c@pie.arvixe.com...

...

First thing I always do after a version upgrade is hack the login page in to something that looks like this: http://bird.net.au/bird/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin It isn't pretty, but at least it is easier for new non-geek users to understand.

Looks pretty enough to me. Why don't you submit something similar for the official release? -- Phil [[en:User:Phil Boswell]]

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