A Staircases puzzle

A Staircases puzzle, like the one below, is a Latin square where a cell–connecting path indicates identity between connected cells' contents.
The above problem is my first attempt at getting published on Puzzle Picnic, under the moniker Term. Puzzle Picnic is a great idea: a community database of grid–based logic puzzles, which provides applets for both constructing and solving online. In short, it is a great place to present puzzles of standard types and reasonable size. Under the fold, I'll be discussing the experience, both of using the site and of creating the problem.