Borrow a License

Modernising the front and back of a legacy workflow

Autodesk
AngularJSReact

Intro

Autodesk offers large-scale businesses an option for Network licensing. This means that when employees connect to their company network, a pool of licenses are available.

Much like a library book, users can borrow a network license from this pool to use Autodesk products off-site.

With the need to deprecate the technology supporting license borrowing and returning workflows, this project addressed 3 problems with 1 workflow re-design.

Problems

For the Licensing Team

We need to move away from AngularJS towards React for more robust and secure workflows. We also want seamless and consistent-looking dialogs.

For Customers

Borrowing involves calling multiple API's, which means a different dialog UI for every step of the way. Network License users have had patchwork experiences for years!

For XD Leadership

We're stepping into the future with a new design system! Licensing dialogs need a revamp as soon as the underlying tech supporting UI allows for it.

Let's go with the (work)flow

The Product Access team uses multiple terms that sound the same - but mean totally different things!

Before I could modernise workflows, I needed to understand the difference between Network Licensing vs. Borrowing-and-Returning a Network License, and the errors involved.

License type?
Selects Sign In
Selects Serial No.
Selects Network
Success
Failure
Success
Failure
Success
Failure
Wants to borrow a license?
Opens License Manager and clicks "Borrow"
Success
Failure
Returns License early?
Opens License Manager and clicks "Return"
Success
Failure

Main Challenges

  1. 1. Product Access team wanted to complete new workflows by the end of 2024, but the new design system was a work-in-progress!

    I initiated contact with the design system team and had an exclusive peek into unpublished Figma components and re-designed Product Access dialogs to mimic incoming tokens.

  2. 2. Even with preliminary dialog UI, engineers revealed that the same limitations from legacy workflows would apply.

    I partnered with engineers to understand limitations:

    • New design system dialogs came in S, M and L, but Product Access dialogs have fixed dimensions to support branding
    • Only return date is editable – not the borrow start date
    • The borrow start date is always today's date by default
    • Users with enlarged text experience a scroll feature

  3. 3. The new design system offers single and multiple date selection options. But which was best for Network license users with learned behaviour to select a single date?

    Considering limitations above, I worked with engineers to customise a date range picker. This way users are still required to select a single date, but they have more visual feedback confirming the period.

Original calendar date picker from Autodesk Inventor 2013New date picker design with improved date range selection

The Final Designs

Borrow a license dialog with date pickerBorrow a license dialog with date picker with annotations
Reminder dialog for borrowed licenseReminder dialog for borrowed license with annotations
Licensing error dialogLicensing error dialog with annotations

Impact

Before (2005)

  • An unintuitive date-selection process that long-term users learned to use over time
  • Vague error messages with cryptic codes and no direct solutions
  • No understanding about users' attitudes and behaviours towards legacy workflows
  • Outdated dialogs that differ in behaviour and appearance to adjacent Autodesk experiences

After (2026)

  • Clear and secure React-based workflows that old and new users understand
  • New errors framework applied — see The Errors Project — so that errors have explicit solutions and self-service paths.
  • Dialog designs updated to be visually consistent with new Autodesk design system
  • User-validated workflows and messages rolled out with confidence
  • Dialogs built with click-through and dwell time analytics to visualise user patterns on an internal dashboard