We’re testing a new Forums experience – feedback welcomed

[amanda.k]

Edit 1/13/2025 - Please see the latest news regarding the Community Redesign – Modernizing the Autodesk Forums in the linked post. 

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Hello Autodesk Community,  

We have launched an A/B test to explore a new and improved forums experience. This test will help us understand what works best for you and ensure that our forums remain an engaging place for everyone, and that you’re easily able to find relevant information for your needs.   

What This Means for You:  

Random Selection: Some users will continue to see the current layout (Group A), while other users will see the new forum layout (Group B).

No Action Needed: You don’t need to do anything differently. Just use the forums as you normally would.  

Valuable Feedback: Your interactions and feedback are incredibly important to us. They will guide us in making the best possible improvements. We welcome feedback in a reply to this post, or you can DM @amanda.k.   

Why Are We Doing This?  

Our goal is to enhance your experience by making the forums more user-friendly, intuitive, and enjoyable. By testing different layouts and features, we can identify what truly resonates with you. We’re also looking to make sure that you can find and see all the additional features and benefits we offer in the Community – such as Events and Blogs.    

  

How You Can Help:  

Engage and Explore: If you’re part of Group A, we encourage you to explore the new features and share your thoughts.  

Share Your Feedback: Whether you’re in Group A or Group B, your feedback is crucial. Let us know what you like, what you don’t, and any suggestions you have.  

  

Thank you for being a part of our community and helping us create the best forums experience possible. We’re excited to hear your thoughts and continue improving together!  

See you on the Community!  

@amanda.k 

Edited 12/12/24, 3:00PM PST to add:

Recordings of Office Hours

December 5, 2024 - Autodesk Community Team Product Team Office Hours recording

December 9, 2024 - Autodesk Community Team Product Team Office Hours recording

December 12, 2024 - Autodesk Community Team Product Team Office Hours recording

December 19, 2024 - Autodesk Community Team Product Team Office Hours recording

Blog Posts from the Product Team:

Week of 12/12/24 - Forum Redesign – New Releases & Office Hours Recap for this week.

Week of 12/6/24 - Forum Redesign – New Releases & Office Hours Recap for this week.

Week of 12/19/24 - Forum Redesign - New Releases & Office Hours Recap for this week

Week of  1/10/2025 - Community Redesign – Modernizing the Autodesk Forums

FAQ - living FAQ document. We are still gathering questions and will be updating it reguarly. 

[amanda.k]

HI everyone, thank you for the feedback. This is a reminder that if I go through and "like" your post, it's not me "liking" that the content states you are unhappy, or having issues.  I'm trying to ensure that you know that we've seen your feedback and given it to the developers. 

Thank you again for every piece of feedback. We're listening and adjusting!

Amanda

[m_kingdon]

I could be getting hung up on semantics here, but for me "adjusting" would indicate that you are pushing ahead with the new design and making minor alterations in the hope that we eventually shut up and accept it.  I just think this new design is DOA and should be scrapped rather than adjusted.  If your development team want to make adjustments, I think they should start from the old design instead.  There was more right with that layout.  Most changes I want to the new design are to just put things back to how they were, so why not just go back?

[amanda.k]

@m_kingdon I think you're getting hung up on semantics. Absolutely no hidden messages in the words I choose, besides the fact that they're sometimes too lengthy ( I blame my English-Lit degree from my past). 

I have no updates as to the state of the new design, it's probability of going forward, or larger decision along that line. 

I am collecting and reporting on feedback and sentiment, and will be following up individually with users the results of their feedback at the end of the A/B test. 

Amanda

[Chad-Smith]

Thanks for the screenshot of the older UI. It's a reminder of just how much clearer and easy to read it is compared to the redesign.

[Chad-Smith]

---

@m_kingdon wrote:

I think they should start from the old design instead.  There was more right with that layout.  Most changes I want to the new design are to just put things back to how they were, so why not just go back?

---

 I agree. There is definitely more to like about the older UI than the redesign.

[Chad-Smith]

Thought it was worth a closer comparative analysis.

[ВeekeeCZ]

---

@Chad-Smith wrote:

Thought it was worth a closer comparative analysis.

---

Yes, these clearly recap the most serious problems of the new design. My feedback is absolutely identical, and other users mention them as well. FYI, if you are sick by forced to test a new, under-prepared interface, try a different browser.

[j.palmeL29YX]

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@Chad-Smith wrote:

Thought it was worth a closer comparative analysis.

...

---

Full agreement to post #66!

[pendean]

@amanda.k My 2cents worth:

I don't have an opinion on #1-#2-#3,

#4 is perfect as is to me,

#5 and #6 are not deal breakers for me but nice to have.

+ Bring back message preview on the main forum page from a few versions back please.

@Chad-Smith thanks for the graphics.

[m_kingdon]

Yep, I fully agree with these points.  This is a great post that clearly sums up the problems with the new design compared to the previous design.

[matt.worland]

As Im working in the new UI more, I have a few more comments on the Topic Listing.

1. I don't understand the bookmark button on the topic. I don't know if I want to bookmark a topic until after I have read it and found value.
2. As others have mentioned, I like having the view count. When asking a question and awaiting a response, its nice to see if others have at least looked at it., If I see its a high view count with no answers, then I assume, I'm not getting a response and I can continue looking for other solutions. But a low view count, I still have hope someone might have the answer. 

[kerry_w_brown]

Reposted from the .NET group.

I wrote:

Thankfully I'm in the placebo group on a PC.

Can someone advise how the 'new' format handles code sample display and posting.
If it can't display at least 70 characters ( preferably 90 ) it's as useful as teats on a bull.

---

Aside from that;
My opinion from the images I've seen is that the 'new' is an abysmal failure for peer to peer support group.
.. . . both in form and function as well as visual appeal.

Please don't add me to the 'in' group.

[daniel_cadext]

The previous design was actually pretty nice, whereas the new layout is just awful.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

---

@kerry_w_brown , see images below. Hopefully I've addressed what you were wondering about. I think most of us agree with your general assessment so far. maybe they'll pull a rabbit out of their hat though... we shall see 😐

I think I read that they are going to turn on threading so that postings will be indented 4 levels deep, so that could have some negative impacts to code windows.

Here is 100 characters in a general code window, that seem to display ok, when replying to your post ( so not indented). It actually appears to display better in the new version in this case.

It looks like they have stretched the display in the topics to be wider than the old layout... that seems to be a very new update ( maybe done just today?).

123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 1234567890

New version, using chrome

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Old version using IE Edge

[daniel_cadext]

“I do want to be very clear that this has been in design by UX and product teams for over a year.”

I actually feel really bad about this, as I know the teams have spent a lot of time and effort trying to get this right. I know that nobody wants to hear bad things about their projects. I’m sure the team didn't set out to design something terrible. But it’s just really bad, so bad in fact, that I have been avoiding coming here.

[kerry_w_brown]

---

@Curtis_Waguespack wrote:

---

@kerry_w_brown , see images below. Hopefully I've addressed what you were wondering about. I think most of us agree with your general assessment so far. maybe they'll pull a rabbit out of their hat though... we shall see 😐

< . . . >

It looks like they have stretched the display in the topics to be wider than the old layout... that seems to be a very new update ( maybe done just today?).

123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 1234567890

<. . . >

---

Thanks @Curtis_Waguespack 

Regards,

[kerry_w_brown]

Just for interest :
Is the new design faster for
    initial load
    sign-in
    topic display
    page changes
    forum group changes
    searching
    etc

??

Regards,

[Curtis_Waguespack]

---

@kerry_w_brown wrote:

Just for interest :
Is the new design faster for
    initial load
    sign-in
    topic display
    page changes
    forum group changes
    searching
    etc

??

Regards,

---

Overall I don't see any drastic improvements or declines on the speeds of things,  other than the tools themselves are difficult to use, so lots of extra clicks and incessant resizing of things, etc. There are a few odd lags here and there with some of the way they are trying to fix page loads. Searching isn't any better or worse as far as I can tell, other than the search for specific forums defaults to the entire community, so you have to change that every time.

The glaring issue is that this started with a MVP ( minimum viable product) but it omitted the V. And of course if you're doing an A/B test where you are comparing the new (B )  to the old (A), you really should never start with an MVP for the new product that is lesser than the existing product.

In fact if I wanted to design a user experience test to really upset users, I would do it that way. And then ask users to provide feedback about how to get the new product back to what the existing product already was, and then I would admonish them if they were less than professional in their feedback. And I would not make it optional. I would force them to use the new version and collect data as they struggled. 

However, if I wanted user buy-in, and a final product that focuses on improvement, and optimizes the change to improvement ratio, I might make sure my new product demonstrated at least some minimum improvement over the existing product from day one, when I introduced it to the users. Then I would ask them to participate and provide feedback.

But what do I know...

In any case the primary issues are:

• loss of functionality
  • no post numbers for example
• controls that are defaulted incorrectly
• addition of empty space, lots and lots of empty space
  • Did I mention the empty space?
  • The same empty space that we as users gave feedback about a couple of years ago
  • The same empty space that were left to live with for the last couple of years
• New layout items such as Trending topics and solutions
  • most of which don't apply to the specific forums and appear to just be placeholders crammed in to fill the space

• Awkward navigation in general 
• The text editor used to create a post or reply has a lot of weirdness to it as well.
• Did I mention the empty space?

Anyway, this is what I see when I open a forum ( with a standard 1920x1080 resolution, zoomed at 100%).

[amanda.k]

@kerry_w_brown 

I just asked and confirmed with the team that they did do work to improve performance and loading time throughout the site. 

In addition, the experience will feel quicker because when you write & post a reply, the page doesn't reload every time anymore.

All the rest of your feedback I have compiled and passed on, including sentiment. Thank you for taking the time to share it. 

Amanda

[ActivistInvestor]

I was going to post a comment about the lack of a dark mode or a mode that matches your system UI or browser settings and then I came across your post which shows what appears to be a dark mode. Where is the switch for that?