Community Redesign – Modernizing the Autodesk Forums - Feedback

[CGBenner]

[06/26/2025]

Post to the latest blog on the release this week

[06/11/2025]

Post to the latest blog on the release this week

[05/30/2025]

Post to the latest shareout of the listing of elements found / solved

Blog post to the latest announcement of the final migration round on the community

[5/15/2025]

The latest blog post is live and covers everything on the behind-the-scenes updates that are happening.

[5/7/2025]

The April Release Blog post is now live with updates on the Industry Hubs and more.
________________________________________________________________________________________

[Blog link in original post updated 3/6/2025]

Clarification as requested - 2/14/2025:  Any feedback in this forum thread that does not directly say that a feedback form has been submitted, and even some that does, is being captured and logged for the team to look into.  We may not respond directly to each post but we will add a "Like" to the post to indicate that we have seen and logged it.  If we have anything meaningful that we can add at the moment, we will reply with that.  If we do not reply, it means that we simply don't have anything to add to that request at the time.  We are adding links to the posts that we submit, and giving details on which individual post the team should look at, as well as including any images you share.  We do not have a way to add videos to the feedback form, but these are still welcome and appreciated, and we make a note of it on the form when we submit it so the team knows to look for the video.  Thank you!

Hello Community! 
 
As you can see from this recent blog post on our Autodesk Community Blog, the Autodesk Community Forums will soon be getting a new look and feel.  This new look is part of our efforts to modernize the community and place key resources where you can more easily find them. 
 
Some of you have had an early look at these updates during our recent A/B testing across the community. We extend our sincere thanks to everyone who shared their feedback during this phase. Your insights and comments have been instrumental in refining this design.  Here are some of the changes you will see: 

• Updated Forums experience: Enhanced navigation, optimized mobile experience, new threaded posts and the ability to upvote content. 

• Recommended content: Explore new content sections featuring suggested blog posts, events, and additional resources tailored to your interests.  

• Recognition for top contributors: Visual recognition to help you get to know the most active members in the community. 

• Changes based on your A/B test feedback: We’ve made several updates based on your valuable feedback detailed in the Product News posts on our Autodesk Community Blog.  

We would love to continue to hear your feedback on this redesign, so we have created a feedback form, which you can bookmark for future use, to report any issues or suggestions that you have. 
 
For more details on this release, I invite you to read the full blog post on our Community Blog. 

Thank you all for being a part of this Community! 

[Simon_Weel]

Uhhhhhh....

No, Disappointed is not the users name....

[Tarek_K]

---

@ChrisRS wrote:

The Expert Elite Lounge is inaccessible.

The EXPERT ELITE Lounge has been missing from the Group Hubs page since last night.

External bookmarks lead to access denied.

Is anyone else seeing this?

I think Lounge changes are anticipated. but see no announcement.

---

Hi @ChrisRS,

just adressing this quickly to solve it, but I can already say it has nothing to do with the redesign as I've just double-checked our logs, and it appears you somehow removed yourself from the Expert Elite Lounge.

Keep in mind @ChrisRS the Expert Elite Lounge is a hidden group hub for Expert Elite Members only. Which means only members can see the front door of the house, so to speak (unlike closed group hubs, where you can at least knock at the front door and ask to be let in). This means that if you can't see the front door, you can't be let in, which would explain the 'Access Denied' message you can see.

I've added you back to the Expert Elite Lounge so you can rejoin the conversation. Be mindful to not removing yourself from the group hub again, but feel free to reach out to me if in any case this would happen again. 

[kerry_w_brown]

@Tarek_K  et al

A Formal Feedback Form Has Not Been Submitted.

Please review Chris's recent Post Message 677  and consider the mock-up of any Forum 'Activity feed' page.
Then have a look at any current page and consider the visual jumble of the arrangement at the moment.
As we scan down the list it is difficult to register what we are actually seeing because of the  different arrangement of components in each entry.

Regards,

[kerry_w_brown]

---

@ChrisRS wrote:

< snipped >
Option (E) is my preference. I do not think all the details inside the topic post must be represented in the list.

---

@ChrisRS , The more I look at option ' E ' the more I like it.  Essentially on Desktops, laptops and tablets the post summary may stay at 2 lines high. ( to be confirmed, of course ).
It would be 'nice' if a few more people commented on this

Regards and Thanks,

[Tarek_K]

Hi all,

going through the posts 1 by 1. and making a bigger post. 🙂

On post 642 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : the banners are in place, though already I had discussions and the banners will not made rolling down to stay aligned with the other Autodesk websites as there the banners are also not rolling with the page but stay at their location. Nevertheless, the color coding was already implemented in the new process and hopefully helpful for future announcements. 🙂

On post 644 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : I saw that too - thanks for the video; this will be added to issues with the post editor (such as the curor going out of the view in the editor with the '@' etc.). This is recorded.

On post 645 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack: Help me remembering but could we ever have an inline picture with the text? I definitely cannot recall it and try to set it correctly if it is either a bug or a new request; nevertheless I took note on the imgaze size changes from original chosen size when editing a post (HTML code or changes there to explore).

On post 646 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : I tested and overall the breadcrumb is not not responsive, this one seems to take simply longer then the others which is odd in itself to be fair. Did you get a timeout or was it the same behavior that it just takes ages? This is added also to the list.

On post 648 & 680 / this linked one & this one / by @Cadguru42 : True, for longer topics whever everything is summed up together with multiple posts; it jumps to the last - with smaller topics or limited reactions it jumps to the post in question. Brought this in as notification links for a topic with multiple responses should jump to the last unread post / not the last post in general. And just please put a like here or confirm in another response, that was definitely the case in the old design, right?

On post 649 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack :  Oh the link and the sorting issue which comes with it is internally being discussed, believe me, as it is really confusing. So on the browserload - can you help me and load maybe a forum page (AutoCAD forum) then a topic page; inform me about the browser youre using; do you have addins active or not, and can you send me a .HAR file? Also, if you dont mind do you have another browser to test the same page which has slow load and see if that browser loads it faster? As I said I experienced it myself and with someone else but the browser made the difference but also the issue where not equal to a browser; every more insights is helpful (also if it is only sporadic or consistent)

On 650 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : Fixed (or let´s say at least link changed) 

On 651 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : Dang - that will take some time to fix; I will let someone in my team look into that. Maybe there is just an easy search and replace all we can run for the links in question. Altering only that segment. 

On 652 / this linked one / by @kerry_w_brown : There are some format and sorting functions changable in profile, but overall this mainly comes from the platform itself. This is logged and I will pass that on but if the platform cannot do it natively it might be hard to successfully get this in, with the reason that the whole platform works very strict with time stamps and date stamps in their ID creation etc. there might be a reason why the platform has the date and time settings as they are. Just trying to give a bit of color, but will be passed on! 🙂 

On 653 / this linked one / by @ChrisRS (and Kerry_w_brown): Thanks for taking the time to set-up a mock example. This will be passed on. Nevertheless, be assured that soon the issues with the topic listing and what is seen where as being consistent to be consistent. Though it might not exactly look like you shared, but at least the buttons or icons shouldnt move around. 

On 659 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : This is for me not reproducible; different browsers different accounts - the reporting always works as it should and go through. Anyone else has this as well and can confirm? Overall, best in this case to provide browser type, version etc. Also @Curtis_Waguespack just checking in case but you didnt click report; waited on the message screen e.g. 5-10 minutes and then hitting report? As this might reset the authentication token there leading to the action.

On 679 / this one / by @ChrisRS : Let me give some context here as there was a deliberate choice and let me know your thoughts after knowing these thinkings and details please. 

Background:

• Why do we use Forums and Forum in the breadcrumb structure? The breadcrumb structure follows the name of each forum or category on the Community. We used to call the groups of product boards (Forum, Ideas, Knowledge bases) categories, such as the AutoCAD category, but we found that the term was not meaningful to many community members. We had many discussions internally, working out what we should call these in-between groups of boards and landed on Forums as it was more widely understood as an aggregate of many inside the box of e.g. 'AutoCAD'.
• Why do we use the full industry name? Whilst wordy, the full industry names can be understood immediately by anyone, even if you're not familiar with Autodesk. Additionally, the extra detail helps surface our pages with search engines better than just the acronyms alone. The reason we didn't go with naming the industry community hubs as collections is due to the Industry Product Collections, which don't contain all the products we have on Community.

I think these were now all - hope I didnt miss anything; if yes, please let me know! 

[pball]

I might be missing something, but is the jump to first unread post feature gone? Catching up on long threads is a pain since notification or clicking on a thread doesn't jump to the first unread post any more.

[Tarek_K]

Hi @pball ,

sadly yes it is. I feel your pain as well. I have it listed already for looking into it and hopefully bringing it back in the future! 

[Simon_Weel]

Community Hub. What is that?

It's not listed under Home, unless you click:

There its listed on the far right:

And then there's this: Community Central - Autodesk Community

So we have a 'Autodesk Community', a 'Community Hub' and a 'Community Central'. It sounds like they all do the same. Are the latter two some leftovers yet to be removed? And if not, why?

[ChrisRS]

Thank you, Tarek.

I have no Idea how I removed myself, but I will try to avoid doing so in the future. In retrospect, I should have DMed or emailed Maureen.

I was not aware of the distinction between closed and hidden. Next time, I'll be sure to read the fine print. 😁  

Regards,

Chris

[Tarek_K]

Hi @Simon_Weel ,

I try to explain it but I will have to get a bit technical - I hope you dont mind that. The community is now structured that you have 4 huge buckets:

• One Area for each industry (AEC; PD&M; M&E)
• On Community hub, which is more general 

In these areas residing the industry specific forums - in the community hub the more general ones. 

In community hub there are located the following forums, which usually dont fit any industry but are still relevant from a general standpoint:

Community Central is the destination (which is a so called group hub) which serves as entry point for community members to intro themselves, and for us to make community relevant announcements. As a group hub is an aggregate of different forum types you can find there also e.g. an idea board, a tkb, a forum itself. (I hope I dont turn too complicated). So basically community central is a group hub with the purpose I described.

This you will see in the breadcrumbs if you follow the path:

and all the boards inside it encompasses (as it is a specific group)

Hope that makes sense and is not too abstract; let me know if a video explanation might be more helpful - happy to do one @Simon_Weel 

[Tarek_K]

No worries @ChrisRS ! Always here to help and that one was easy after I saw your screenshot and easy to validate in the logs what happened. 🙂 Feel free if it ever happens again, to just also DM for first aid! 🙂 

[ChrisRS]

This is a great post, Tarek - thank you for sharing.
This is the sort of meaningful communication that users value. 

---

@Tarek_K wrote:

Hi all,

going through the posts 1 by 1. and making a bigger post. 🙂

On post 642 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : the banners are in place, though already I had discussions and the banners will not made rolling down to stay aligned with the other Autodesk websites as there the banners are also not rolling with the page but stay at their location. Nevertheless, the color coding was already implemented in the new process and hopefully helpful for future announcements. 🙂

On post 644 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : I saw that too - thanks for the video; this will be added to issues with the post editor (such as the curor going out of the view in the editor with the '@' etc.). This is recorded.

On post 645 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack: Help me remembering but could we ever have an inline picture with the text? I definitely cannot recall it and try to set it correctly if it is either a bug or a new request; nevertheless I took note on the imgaze size changes from original chosen size when editing a post (HTML code or changes there to explore).

On post 646 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : I tested and overall the breadcrumb is not not responsive, this one seems to take simply longer then the others which is odd in itself to be fair. Did you get a timeout or was it the same behavior that it just takes ages? This is added also to the list.
ChrisRS 2025-06-05       For me, about 2 minutes and 15 seconds to reach the Community Hub.  I am using the latest version of Edge. Navigation in this area generally feels sluggish.  

On post 648 & 680 / this linked one & this one / by @Cadguru42 : True, for longer topics whever everything is summed up together with multiple posts; it jumps to the last - with smaller topics or limited reactions it jumps to the post in question. Brought this in as notification links for a topic with multiple responses should jump to the last unread post / not the last post in general. And just please put a like here or confirm in another response, that was definitely the case in the old design, right?

On post 649 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack :  Oh the link and the sorting issue which comes with it is internally being discussed, believe me, as it is really confusing. So on the browserload - can you help me and load maybe a forum page (AutoCAD forum) then a topic page; inform me about the browser youre using; do you have addins active or not, and can you send me a .HAR file? Also, if you dont mind do you have another browser to test the same page which has slow load and see if that browser loads it faster? As I said I experienced it myself and with someone else but the browser made the difference but also the issue where not equal to a browser; every more insights is helpful (also if it is only sporadic or consistent)

On 650 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : Fixed (or let´s say at least link changed) 

On 651 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : Dang - that will take some time to fix; I will let someone in my team look into that. Maybe there is just an easy search and replace all we can run for the links in question. Altering only that segment. 

On 652 / this linked one / by @kerry_w_brown : There are some format and sorting functions changable in profile, but overall this mainly comes from the platform itself. This is logged and I will pass that on but if the platform cannot do it natively it might be hard to successfully get this in, with the reason that the whole platform works very strict with time stamps and date stamps in their ID creation etc. there might be a reason why the platform has the date and time settings as they are. Just trying to give a bit of color, but will be passed on! 🙂 
ChrisRS 2025-06-05    I concur with @kerry_w_brown that there should be an option for time display customization. Since I primarily engage with peer support forums, I would prefer a 24-hour format to eliminate unnecessary space taken up by AM/PM indicators and improve readability."

On 653 / this linked one / by @ChrisRS (and Kerry_w_brown): Thanks for taking the time to set-up a mock example. This will be passed on. Nevertheless, be assured that soon the issues with the topic listing and what is seen where as being consistent to be consistent. Though it might not exactly look like you shared, but at least the buttons or icons shouldn't move around. 
ChrisRS 2025-06-05       Also see 606 / this linked one / and 677 / this linked one /.
I'm glad to see that the topic listing format will be updated. Several of us have signed NDAs and would appreciate an early look at the proposed changes before they go live for users. 😁

@Curtis_Waguespack might be able to put a name to this concept. 😁

On 659 / this linked one / by @Curtis_Waguespack : This is for me not reproducible; different browsers different accounts - the reporting always works as it should and go through. Anyone else has this as well and can confirm? Overall, best in this case to provide browser type, version etc. Also @Curtis_Waguespack just checking in case but you didnt click report; waited on the message screen e.g. 5-10 minutes and then hitting report? As this might reset the authentication token there leading to the action.

On 679 / this one / by @ChrisRS : Let me give some context here as there was a deliberate choice and let me know your thoughts after knowing these thinkings and details please. 

Background:

• Why do we use Forums and Forum in the breadcrumb structure? The breadcrumb structure follows the name of each forum or category on the Community. We used to call the groups of product boards (Forum, Ideas, Knowledge bases) categories, such as the AutoCAD category, but we found that the term was not meaningful to many community members. We had many discussions internally, working out what we should call these in-between groups of boards and landed on Forums as it was more widely understood as an aggregate of many inside the box of e.g. 'AutoCAD'.
  ChrisRS 2025-06-05     
  

  This is not a major forum functionality concern—it may simply be a personal preference. However, I’d be interested in hearing other users' perspectives on this.

  I don’t recall seeing 'Category' used previously. I remember 'Styles' instead

  
  

  Clarification on Naming Issues:

  • I agree that following the name of the target link is logical and important. My original post wasn’t specific enough—I don’t see the lack of distinction in the breadcrumb ladder as the main issue. Instead, the primary concern for me is the lack of differentiation between the page names themselves.

  • When viewed separately, 'Forums' and 'Forum' pages make sense. However, when seen together, the distinction becomes subtle, leading to confusion—especially in verbal communication.

  • The gray on dark gray color schemes does not enhance readability. 
    

  • I suggested 'Hub' since Autodesk already uses 'Industry Hubs.'

  • 'Forums' primarily serves as a collection of links to other boards, whereas 'Forum' is a linked board containing topics—making differentiation important.

  • Had I been involved in the original naming discussions, I’m not sure what I would have suggested. However, in hindsight, better alternatives to 'Forums' could have been: Hub, Pages, Dashboard, Forum Collection, Launch Pad, Portfolio, or Portmanteau.

  • At this stage, it may just be a matter of 'what’s done is done.'  (sigh)

  
  
  
• Why do we use the full industry name? Whilst wordy, the full industry names can be understood immediately by anyone, even if you're not familiar with Autodesk. Additionally, the extra detail helps surface our pages with search engines better than just the acronyms alone. The reason we didn't go with naming the industry community hubs as collections is due to the Industry Product Collections, which don't contain all the products we have on Community.
  ChrisRS 2025-06-05     

  Supporting new users is important, but functionality is equally crucial. When the two are in conflict, I prioritize functionality. New users quickly become experienced, while limited functionality remains a long-term usability issue.

  Industry collection abbreviations such as AEC and PD&M are widely recognized. I find it hard to imagine that a visitor unfamiliar with Autodesk and these abbreviations would derive significant value from the full industry names.

  Additional Concerns:

  • Breadcrumb Navigation: Premature collapsing of breadcrumb links affects usability and navigation.

  • Name Consistency: 'Home' links to Forums.Autodesk.com, but doesn’t explicitly display that name. Likewise, Forums.Autodesk.com doesn’t say 'Home'—which, while common, may warrant reconsideration. I do not challenge 'Home" but suggest that 'AEC' should not be objectional.

  • Search Visibility: I don’t fully understand SEO mechanics, but I acknowledge its importance in making pages more accessible.
    
    

On a lighter note...

Support: "Look for it on the ___ Forums page." User: "It's not there." Support: "What do you see?" User: "___ Forum." Support: "Click on ___ Forums...sss... in the breadcrumbs." User: "The what? Are you hissing at me? Is this a tech support call or a snake attack? I'll call back."

*Click.

I think these were now all - hope I didnt miss anything; if yes, please let me know! 

---

Thank you, again, Tarek.
Chris Stevens

[Waguespack_Curtis]

---

@ChrisRS wrote:

This is a great post, Tarek - thank you for sharing.
This is the sort of meaningful communication that users value. 

---

Yes, I agree! Thank you, Tarek.

This is the type of communication and responsiveness we've been asking for. I feel like we've turned a real corner here!

---

@ChrisRS wrote:

Tarek wrote: Though it might not exactly look like you shared, but at least the buttons or icons shouldn't move around. 

@Curtis_Waguespack might be able to put a name to this concept. 😁

---

@ChrisRS, you might be sorry you asked, but here are some long-winded thoughts 😀

I think your mockups are taking all of these ideas into consideration, even if you're not aware of the concepts or terms, and I really appreciate the time you've taken to think those things through to provide the examples here. 

I think we're just talking about a few things that all relate to how a design or layout can tax users' mental resources and make tools feel more difficult to use:

• With the current layout, there is a strong "Mental Model Mismatch" that is happening when things are moving around, and so it forces constant mental translation between what we expect to encounter and what we encounter, or what we previously encountered and are now encountering.
• This becomes very fatiguing and raises what is called an "Interaction Cost". Here the costs needed to do several simple tasks that we do when scanning the list of topics is too high, and as users we can just feel that cost rising very strongly through intuition as we try to do the things we normally do with the list of topics. 
• There is also something called "Attention Residue" that happens when part of the users' attention gets stuck on a previous task or design element, because its interaction cost was too high. We're seeing some of that here with the current implementation too. The big problem with this is it often impacts well designed, downstream tools to make them less effective, because the user is distracted by the previous issue. So this can have a compounding effect as users move through a layout or design, which can make the sum of the whole feel off, because a tool (or tools) at the beginning of a workflow have issues. I think a lot of that is probably occurring here.

When I'm working on something, I just try to think about all of this generally as "cognitive leaks" and try not to make users' think about the wrong thing. But a lot of this is about how our design choices work with the users' subconscious. Ideally, we want to strive for a "transparent design" that users don't even pay attention to. And that's why often if we follow style templates or style guides too strictly it makes a design become very intrusive.

[Waguespack_Curtis]

@Tarek_K, not sure if this is related to the recent migrations maybe? But is something that might need checked into:

Anyone else NOT getting emails - Autodesk Community

I keep all email notifications turned off, so I don't have any input on this, but I know a lot of users rely on them, so this is likely creating some communication issues for our community as a whole.

[Waguespack_Curtis]

@Tarek_K, I'll try to catch up on this and answer your questions / provide the requested details on this next week, but thanks again for this level of attention and responsiveness!

[Simon_Weel]

Hope that makes sense and is not too abstract

Uhh, well, kind of? In the old days, websites had a site plan to show the layout with all links. Things like Home, Hub and Central sound like a starting point, and maybe they are, but not in a logical sense. At least not to me....

[kerry_w_brown]

---

[quote] @pball 

I might be missing something, but is the jump to first unread post feature gone? 
Catching up on long threads is a pain since notification or clicking on a thread 
doesn't jump to the first unread post any more.​

[/quote]

---

@Tarek_K wrote:

Hi @pball ,

sadly yes it is. I feel your pain as well. I have it listed already for looking into it and hopefully bringing it back in the future! 

---

For years every half decent web forum I can think of has had the capability to "go to last read post" or "show unread posts"

The fact that these options are not available here speaks volumes about just how much the designers of this forum knows or cares about how to look after it's users.

Regards,

[ChrisRS]

Request for Front-End Modernization Updates

Now that backend migration appears stable, I'd like to suggest some communication regarding the next steps and when we might see front-end changes. While we received updates on backend improvements, I don't recall any official notice stating that front-end modernization was paused, only that backend work would be significant and time-consuming.

From a user perspective, the migration seems to have gone well. We've been reassured that front-end efforts will resume, and @Tarek_K has provided meaningful engagement—acknowledging feedback and inviting discussion. I sincerely appreciate that transparency.

At this point, a rough timeline for front-end changes would be helpful for planning and expectations. Even a general outline of priorities could assist the community in understanding what’s coming next.

Thanks to everyone working behind the scenes to support these conversations—I look forward to continuing the discussion!

[Simon_Weel]

Don't know if it was there all the time, but this seems a bit overdone?

Also - submit a product idea - there are separate boards for that.

[Tarek_K]

Hi all, 

Please see the latest update post with the elements released HERE from 06/10/2025.

@ChrisRS I sadly do not know yet the planning of releases and which item goes into which sprint to be honest. I hope to connect with the respective teams internally, to first - see if I can influence the list of priority (which might not be equal complexity though) and see what I can do to help moving elements forward.

Overall updates are usually made in a two weeks-sprint cycle. Whereas minor things might be released in a hotfix. I understand this is vague and might not be helpful; but overall every two weeks there could be updates coming out. 🙂 

Later I will also try to adjust the table linked with the resolves elements from this release, but I need some time to go through it again. 🙂