Beta Features

Purpose/Goals
The primary purpose of beta experiments is to allow for foundation designers and engineers to roll out small scale projects in an environment where a large numbers of user can test, give feedback, and use these features in real world settings. The secondary purpose of beta experiments is to provide a path to integrate helpful, well designed gadgets into core after vetting, testing, and review from design and engineering.

Current hacky implementation
Extension:BetaFeatures

Access
Labs experiments will be a special page accessed via the personal bar at the top of the page for logged in users.

Appearance
The layout is purposefully different to both inspire interest and propose a departure from the standard layout and complexity of the existing user preferences.



Functionality
Users will have the option of opting into individual experiments or setting a preference to be automatically enrolled in new experiments as they are released to labs. When new experiments are made available to users a notification will be sent out via site-wide notification (echo) to increase visibility, and get additional feedback so the design team can react, update and improve experiments before making a decision to integrate into core, iterate more, or abandon the experiment.

Notifications
Beta Experiments will trigger Echo notifications at different times:
 * New Experiment Available: Sent to all logged in users when a new experiment is available to test
 * New Experiment Enabled: Sent to logged in users who have enabled automatic experiment enrollment
 * Experiment Updated: While experiments could change on a daily or hourly basis based on testing, user feedback, or optimization. When major changes to an experiment are significant a notification with a change list may be sent to enrolled users.
 * Experiment Graduation (Future): When experiments have achieved a high level of stability, acceptance and polish, they may be chosen to be integrated by default as an extension on a project by project basis. 
 * Back to the Drawing Board (Future): Experiments that don't pass muster may be discontinued, and removed from the Beta Experiments program to be reevaluated.