What do you think of the new Autodesk forum interface?

[MKE_Howard]

Hey guys, I just saw the new interface of the autodesk forum and I wanted to know what do you guys think?

[Curtis_Waguespack]

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@MKE_Howard wrote:

But we have to remember that the forum is changing for a reason.

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What was that reason? I've yet to hear much more of a reason, than "we're updating it" 

I don't see resistance to change being the primary factor here, and I think we'd be missing the bigger picture to view it as just that.

Minimum Viable Product

The mistake made was starting with a MVP ( minimum viable product) that was far too minimum. MVP is an outstanding approach, when done well. It allows us to stand up a new design or product, and begin getting feedback about it right away, rather than spending a lot of time/money designing features that users don't care about, or that the market doesn't support, etc.

Again, it's an outstanding approach... when done correctly.

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 less finished or robust than the existing product. 

A/B done well

In order to get user buy-in, and a final product that focuses on improvement and optimizes the amount of improvement that comes with each change, you'd want to make sure the new product is equal to the existing product. Or better yet: it demonstrates some minimum improvement over the existing product right out of the box. You want users to be excited about the improvements and not fearful that the changes are going to result in a lesser product. And it should really be voluntary testing, not forced. If done well, people are generally excited to be part of the test group, so they can see the new stuff.

That's the way an A/B test should look: the new B product, when it is introduced to users at the beginning of the A/B test, is at the very least, equal to the old A product, and preferably it demonstrates some minimum improvement.

A/B done poorly

But imagine if we just went with a MVP that didn't consider the existing product. On it's own it works as a minimum viable product to get us up and running. But when compared to the existing product, it looks janky and unfinished. The userbase rejects it from the beginning, because we're providing them a far inferior product in comparison to the one they already know. There's nothing for them to be excited about, only things to be disappointed by. We've shot ourselves in the foot, right from the start. And if we stubbornly continue with that A/B test, the data and results collected are going to be skewed, and we'll need to force a result. A result that has no chance of being the best product, a result that won't reflect the wants or needs of users, and a result that will likely be costly to maintain and have a quick obsolete date.

So if we've done that, we've crippled our MVP from the start, and then captured invalid results from the A/B test. It's a gross misapplication of some very effective development strategies, that will result in a product that simply never had a chance to deliver on what we originally set out to do.

Inventor Release as an A/B test

That is what we have here. This forum A/B test is the equivalent of if the Inventor developers decided to ask us to beta test the 2026 version of Inventor that only had the capability of Inventor 2016. If they attempted that, Inventor users would naturally only focus on what was missing, and what a step back it is. 

Maybe those Inventor users are just scared of change though?

[amanda.k]

Hey everyone, jumping back in here - none of your feedback is wasted, if I or someone else from Autodesk "likes" your post, that means that your feedback has been recorded (and sentiment too, we're paying attention to that). 

A little more about the "trending" feedback - 

The trending tab feedback has been shared with our product and design teams, all of the sentiment around it (exact wording), each comment added onto the ticket for it.

 As with all improvements, no changes will be implemented until after the A/B test has been completed. We are not making design changes or logic changes until after the A/B test is over. 

I can tell you that, at this moment, the trending tab feedback is at the top of the list for further investigation and validation with the data, but the trending tab will stay as it is until the A/B test has concluded. I don’t want anyone to think that we are not paying attention to the feedback because no changes have been immediately made.

Thank you all again for the time spent letting us know what is frustrating you. We appreciate it, and hear it. 

Amanda

[jyager]

What's the reason?

[kresh.bell]

new interface it's perfect, if you use Edge 😏

[MKE_Howard]

Hi, I didn’t mean "But we have to remember that the forum is changing for a reason" that way. I just meant it’s changing, so we gotta live with it. Sorry for the misunderstanding guys And @Curtis_Waguespack very interesting stuff and I completely agree with you. But looks like the "forum devs/mananger" are listening to users so I got to say thanks to them. 

[johan.degreef]

The old one was better.

[MatsNorway1]

Horrible. It just is.  Its just less clear what is what.

Also it is still basically phone format:

[MKE_Howard]

I dont have that much white space but have you checked your zoom? 

[gcooper79]

I'm not a fan of the username being located so close to the topic heading and of the same font size / bold.  I feel this can make the topic header less clear to read but also can lead to clicking on the username rather than the topic header which would become frustrating over time.

[MatsNorway1]

• User should not be bold
• Last reply could be on the end
  • with  the date the reply was on
• Stronger lines/separation between subject boxes
• More compact like it used to be
  • Honestly just copy reddit classic view. and if you must, make it prettier.

• Topic should be clickable to go back to first post. Also easier to get correct URL if you want to forward.
  • This was actually a case where i could not figure out how to send it to Autodesk officials when i found a bug/corruption and they wanted to look at it. ( i gave them the reply url from a email notification, then they had to go back in forums to get to OP)
    
    • Deleting url extras did not work to get just the thread link.
      • Example: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/what-do-you-think-of-the-new-autodesk-forum-interface

Im on firefox.

[Mario.VanWiechen]

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@YannickEnrico wrote:

Refreshing the page puts you back on trending. That's awful!

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This is such a pain. Constantly getting dumped back to see some elfs attention seeking post

[tobias]

First question why? 

Does this come from the Idea Station ?

What was so wrong with the 'Old" one, that it had to be changed?

With the "Old" one I could see in one view which topic was of my interrest.

Now I have to really read each line. The effect is like "a wall of text".

It is all monochrome, there is no list effect for fast reading.

Conclusion: I don't like it.

[tobias]

Another thing; How can I switch back to the Old view ?

[andrewiv]

Some have had luck switching back the old format by closing all browsers, clearing cookies, and re-opening the browser.  I also can still see the old format by using a different browser.  Normally I use chrome and it has the new format, but when I use Edge it still shows the old format.

[YannickEnrico]

Replying to topics with more than a few lines, I often experience that the text editor doesn't scale well in Firefox, and that the visible line / cursor doesn't necessarily jump to a visible place after a line shift, forcing me to drag and mark with the mouse to have visibility of what I'm currently writing.

Edit: I noticed it brings up a roller to the right, so I can roll in it.
I'd prefer it to scale so I can view my whole post at once.
Also, doesn't change the issue with roller not jumping to follow my line shift

Edit2: Editting a topic doesn't scale the box. Pressing enter on the last line, suddenly scales it to cover the whole message.

Enter and shift+enter brings up two different behaviours in regards to the scaling of this text editor.

[sam]

(SCREAMING) THIS SUCKS!! Can NOT Do Simple Search! Layout IS HORRIBLE! Interface IS HORRIBLE! Nothing BETTER! ALL IS WORSE THAN IT EVER WAS! I've used this forum since its start, & this IS the WORST Thing That Has EVER HAPPENED here! To No SUPRISE, GOOGLE IS BETTER for finding information using simple search! If you search here, You Will Have To Wade Thru EVERY Autodesk Product results! Yes, you can specify between (4) scenerios in search, but the results are still BAD!! I use to be able to find an answer or solution within a minute at the most! Now, I Can NOT find even a CLUE as to what I am looking for! The FORUM LAYOUT SUCKS!!!

@sam- this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation

[CGBenner]

@sam @MKE_Howard @YannickEnrico @andrewiv @tobias 

Good morning.  Just to make sure everyone on this thread is aware: All feedback for the redesign project is being collected on THIS thread in the Community Announcements forum, so that we can keep it in one place.  There is a convenient Feedback form for sharing your ideas and issues with the team.  I cannot make any promises that everything will be added or fixed, but every suggestion is logged and a ticket created.  Please share as much detail as you can and screen shots when you have them.

When we have them available Product release updates will be shared in THIS thread in the same forum, so keep an eye on that for updates as they become available.

This thread will be closed to replies, not to silence anyone, but to consolidate the feedback into the single thread linked above.  Thank you all for your continued feedback.