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.
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[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]

White space is still an issue.

Don't see as much as shown in your screenshot:

Maybe already fixed?

[Simon_Weel]

...on the length of the post title?  i.e a long post title will push everything...

It's not just the Civil 3D forum. And it seems to be the account name of the person last replied pushing things to the next line:

[Brock_Olly]

This is just how they coded the CSS, I also agree it should be consistent because right now everything is all over the place and I mistake upvotes with comments sometimes because they jump around.
See Beekeepers post he highlights this as well (already a page back) and offers a great css solution:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/community-announcements/community-redesign-modernizing-the-autodesk-f...

[kerry_w_brown]

It may be better if the right side column content was not as wide as it is.
It could be reduced significantly, and the left side column is just waste space as well ( on a desktop monitor).

I've honestly given up trying to determine why the design is as it is.

Regards,

[Cadguru42]

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@Simon_Weel wrote:

White space is still an issue.

Don't see as much as shown in your screenshot:

Maybe already fixed?

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Looks like something changed since I posted that. Today it looks like this.

There is still a ton of wasted space, though. There's absolutely no need to have "Join the conversation" with such prominence. Why's it there anyway? The next text says to "Ask a question, share your knowledge, or submit a product idea", which makes the "Join the conversation" line pointless.

This whole fiasco is a great lesson in how not to do UI and web design. If I was still in college I'd make Autodesk a part of my lesson plan.

[Simon_Weel]

There is still a ton of wasted space, though.

Agree. There's a lot about this new design that escapes my mind.  Maybe this whole redesign is driven by something else? With AI as the latest hype, it wouldn't surprise me if the forum is used to train some whooptidoo AI-thing that will make life soooo much easier.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

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@m_kingdon wrote:

Something doesn't seem right ...

 It's particularly noticeable and difficult to quickly scan when the Accepted Solution bubbles do no not align. It looks rather unprofessional and dare I say "sloppy". At a glance it gives the impression that the page isn't displaying correctly.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

@CGBenner , Soooooo?...  about that blog post.

Can we assume at this point that there is going to be no follow up or follow through on the communication to the community as we were told, and that the people who committed to communicating with the community on these updates, are not going to keep their word. And that we should not expect to be able to trust that we as a community are listened to and valued enough to expect honest open communication on the changes made to the community?

Or is there some other conclusion we are meant to draw from the cumulative history of the last 6 months or so, and in particular this latest failure to make an effort to communicate to the community about the latest round of changes? 

Is anyone still listening? Paying attention to feedback? Are the users who are supplying additional follow up feedback here wasting their time? What is the plan going forward?

[Curtis_Waguespack]

I'm curious if any other users are seeing this, or is it just me? 

Long load times with Chrome, still. I reported this last week and even after the latest update I still see very long load times in Chrome, while MS Edge loads normally.

details:

Windows 11 Business with Chrome and MS Edge

2 different user profiles (if that makes a difference)

Profile 1 using Chrome, Profile using 2 Edge

No extensions loaded in Chrome

[Brock_Olly]

Not really, my chrome load time is ~4 seconds and edge ~3 seconds.

[ChrisRS]

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@Curtis_Waguespack wrote:

@CGBenner , Soooooo?...  about that blog post.

Can we assume at this point that there is going to be no follow up or follow through on the communication to the community as we were told, ,,,

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There are still about 12 hours left in April—or 20 hours for anyone tuning in from Tonga. I can't say why, but I am going to grant a little more patience.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

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@ChrisRS wrote:

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There are still about 12 hours left in April—or 20 hours for anyone tuning in from Tonga. I can't say why, but I am going to grant a little more patience.

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I just went outside and checked, and sadly confirmed that I am not in Tonga 😉

We can exercise an absurd example of patience and wait until April of next year, but the point is really that release notes about changes and updates should be released with the changes.

We don't communicate information about product changes because users have asked for them after our release of changes, we do so as we release updates so that users can be informed about what they are seeing, and understand what has changed and why, and not have to guess what is an intended change and what is an unintended bug or regression.

This is a very basic concept that I would expect all development teams and product owners to understand and see the value of, particularly for a community site. 

Community members should not need to ask, or beg for better communication. They should not need to exercise extreme patience for the issuance of product release notes.  

[Cadguru42]

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@Curtis_Waguespack wrote:

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@ChrisRS wrote:

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There are still about 12 hours left in April—or 20 hours for anyone tuning in from Tonga. I can't say why, but I am going to grant a little more patience.

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I just went outside and checked, and sadly confirmed that I am not in Tonga 😉

We can exercise an absurd example of patience and wait until April of next year, but the point is really that release notes about changes and updates should be released with the changes.

We don't communicate information about product changes because users have asked for them after our release of changes, we do so as we release updates so that users can be informed about what they are seeing, an understand what has changed, and why and not have to guess what is an intended change and what is an unintended bug or regression.

This is a very basic concept that I would expect all development teams and product owners to understand and see the value of, particularly for a community site. 

Community members should not need to ask, or beg for better communication. They should not need to exercise extreme patience for the issuance of product release notes.  

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Well, Autodesk as a whole doesn't do a good job of communicating anything. The latest ACAD 2026.0.1 update is 1.53GB in size and the readme only has one fix listed for some plotter issues.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2026/ENU/?guid=AUTOCAD_2026_0_1_FIXED_ISSUES

They didn't even bother to put in there that it adds Bing maps back to the Geolocation images. And this is Autodesk's flagship product they're known for, but can't even be bothered to publish a list of fixes in an update.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

 I think ChrisRS reported this already, but I just encountered this.

Not only did I click the Discard button out of muscle memory because I didn't see the Load button, but when I looked at it again I interpreted the Load button to be disabled or not functioning due to it being what I think anyone would think is "grayed out".

I don't know who looked at this and thought this was a good design call, but this is the type of decision that we have seen throughout this redesign that is absurdly unintuitive.

If I wanted to design a product to mystify and confuse my users, I would do this sort of thing. It's just bizarre that these decisions continue to be made, but also make it past QA and internal testing, and are allowed to be released.

This is what we call "Broken Window Theory", where we leave poor design choices in place that create the perception of a neglected, thrown together, product that is created and maintained with no regard to the user experience.

The Broken Window Theory

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Another issue, I assume it's a bug, but maybe it's intended???

When using the Reply button at the top of the page to reply to the opening post, the message # of ## is missing, and the link button icon is missing also.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

hmmm yeah that seems like they didn't document a lot of issues in that update, I would say that is another "broken window" indication.

Fortunately, for me the Inventor team does a better job at this. We ( Inventor users) often look at the release notes first to see if a problem we have encounter is listed. Often the short description is all that is needed to confirm that the issue we've encountered has been addressed, etc. It makes it much easier to determine what is an intended and unintended behavior, and saves a great deal of sleuthing to be able to look at the release notes and know that the update will resolve the issue. This allows us to make confident recommendations, rather than just "maybe try this"
Inventor 2025 Help | 2025.3 Update | Autodesk

[kerry_w_brown]

@ChrisRS 

"The team" apparently aren't clock watchers 🙂

a friend of mine used to say 'things go crazy, and then it's Friday'

FYI :

 Personally, I don't believe they are concerned about your patience, but I appreciate your tolerance.

Regards,

[kerry_w_brown]

@Curtis_Waguespack 

Yes, Jeff Atwood has delivered some great articles.
The last paragraph in your linked article is worth repeating :

Programming is insanely detail oriented, and perhaps this is why: if you’re not on top of the details, the perception is that things are out of control, and it’s only a matter of time before your project spins out of control. Maybe we should be sweating the small stuff.

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Indeed, words to live by.

Regards,

[Curtis_Waguespack]

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@Brock_Olly wrote:

Not really, my chrome load time is ~4 seconds and edge ~3 seconds.

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Thanks for this message. This gave me a bump in the right direction.

This was set to 200 for some reason, setting it to 30 ( which I think is the default) allowed it to load with the expected speed.

Thanks again!

[ChrisRS]

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@m_kingdon wrote:

Something doesn't seem right with the way the civil 3D forum is being displayed.  ...

LINK 

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I concur.

Note: I wrote this post earlier today and could not post it due to a Community Forum update.
Industry Hubs and other changes have launched! I have not yet seen anything that alters my thoughts.

This 2-line layout is definitely an improvement over the previous version, particularly in addressing the whitespace issue.

Thankfully, the Peer Support forum functionality remains intact.

For me, this feels like 'better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick'—not perfect, but it might be the best we get.

That said, I believe an alternate layout could enhance readability and comprehension for both new users seeking help and experienced users deciding where to allocate their time to assist others. While this might be a long shot, I’m ready to tackle it head-on, even if it means some fruitless windmill tilting.

This image is from my previous post suggesting what I would like to see. From Post 124, 2025-01-21, Page 4 of this thread.  

The design as of 2025-04-30 is wider than before.

Here is my suggestion for a revised layout.:
(The two images are roughly proportional.)

1. This is the most recent design. It is two lines high but can expand to three lines. 
   1. The topic content is sequential and wraps as needed.
      There is no visual positioning to assist when scanning the lisTt.
   2. The Black on Green Accepted Solution blimp is hard to read.
      It is overpowering and floats wherever it pleases.
      While not layout replaced, I think it is given too much prominence as it often is a conversation terminator with no actual solution. 
   3. Aesthetic Opinion: The horizontal topic divider is very light on all my monitors and the vertical spacing line spacing is too generous
2. My suggested layout for a topic with a normal length title. This is a two-line label *
   1. The Title and byline are separated from the topic statistical information which makes scanning topics easier.
   2. The byline is on the line below the topic title which is a customary location.
   3. I think the 'Accepted Solution' Checkmark is adequate.
   4. The topic 'goodies' icons follow the title and float, but in a logical manner that I do not think is distracting.
3. My suggested layout for a topic with a very long title. The Title is truncated to maintain a two-line format.
   1. You might have noticed the typo, rally instead if really. I would like to say that it was intentional, but it is just a typo.
      I would have corrected it, but we are not allowed to edit topic tiles. I would be nice.
4. My suggested layout for a topic with a very long title. The Title wraps creating a three-line format.
   1. This sample does not show the solution checkmark.
   2. I am not a purist. I prefer an occasional; three-line topic over truncated titles. 

There should be rollovers explaining the statistic area and solution checkmark:

* BROWSER WIDTH CONSIDERATION

If a narrow browser window is being used.

1. There will be more word-wrap.
2. By and Latest reply date and time can disappear.
3. The bookmark and solution checkmark should be preserved but the status box can disappear.

This is not a forum debilitating issue.

I am curious what you all think of this.

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Edit 2025-05-02

This is based on a comment by @kerry_w_brown: Link  
I am including it here to consolidate the information.

I can see the logic of putting this on the left and may even prefer it.
Being adjacent to the OP picture might imply that OP created the solution.