Autodesk Labs and the Autodesk Beta program share a common platform — the Autodesk Feedback Community. On the old Autodesk Labs site, you did not need to log in until you tried to download a technology preview. Now you need to log in even to gain access to the project to reach the download page. You still have to log in only once — it just occurs earlier in the process. At one point I considered keeping the old Labs site (no immediatre log in required) as the front-end and the Autodesk Feedback Community as the back end (where feedback and stats are tracked). Had I done that, here's what the user experience would ahve looked like for a technology preview like Project Memento.

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There would have been a variety of hyperlinks to be followed. The links are numbered in the picture above.

1. Labs site: Using the menu pull down on the Autodesk Labs home page or the Project Memento thumbnail that appears on the Industry, Product, or Alphabetical pages, visit the Project Memento landing page: http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/memento.

2. Labs site: Use the Download from Beta Portal link to take you to the Autodesk Beta site. Following this link adds you as a member of the Project Memento project on the Beta site after you have logged into the Beta site.

3. Beta site: Once on the Autodesk Beta site, you can click on the Join link to join the Project Memento project. This takes you to the Autodesk Beta home page.

4. Beta site: You click on Sign In.

5. Beta site: You supply your Autodesk Single Sign-on user name and password and click on Sign In. This takes you to the Project Memento home page on the Beta site.

6. Beta site: Once on the home page, you have options. To get started, you can click on Download to see a list of what downloads are available and download the Project Memento installer.

7. Beta site: From the home page, if you wish to see what other users have said about Project Memento, you can visit the discussion forum by clicking on the Forums link.

8. Labs site: If you wish to send the team an email, you can click on the Email link

9. Labs site: If you wish to post a comment on the latest blog article about Project Memento, you can click on the Blog link.

10. Labs site: If you wish to see Project Memento videos that are part of the Autodesk Channel on YouTube, you click on the YouTube link.

The list above has 10 steps. That's a lot. I think I made the right call in combining Labs with Betas on the same web site. You have to log in earlier, but it could have been much worse. We are grateful for Autodesk Labs community members who take the time and effort to help shape our technology.

Navigation is alive in the lab.