Building your first demo

This guide records a narrated walkthrough of your product and shapes it into a reusable demo in Demo Studio. Allow half an hour for the first one.

Before you start

• A demo account in your product, with realistic demo data. Never use a production account or real customer data.
• A quiet room and a microphone: you'll narrate as you click.
• A rough script. Three to five stops, each answering a question buyers ask.

Step 1: add a demo target

Open Operations → Demo targets (or Demos → Studio → Setup) and add your product:

• Name and description;
• Platform: Web;
• Starting URL: where the demo begins;
• Authentication: none, a username and password with the login page address, or a session cookie;
• Allowed domains: every domain the demo may visit. The demo browser won't go anywhere else.

Save, then Test connection to check Appricity can log in. Login details are encrypted and never shown again; to change them, enter new ones.

Step 2: record

1. Open Demos → Record.
2. Choose the demo target, give the demo a name, and optionally add typed notes.
3. To start on a particular screen, tick the option to position the browser first, navigate there, then Start recording.
4. Click through your product while you talk. Pause if you need to; Discard to start again.
5. Stop & save.

If your browser blocks the microphone, a warning appears; your clicks still record, but there will be no narration. Allow the microphone and record again for the full effect.

Step 3: let the narration land

After saving, your narration is transcribed and lined up with your clicks. Each segment shows transcribing… and then its script. If it says it couldn't transcribe, the reason is shown.

Step 4: shape the demo

In Demos → Studio → Build, open the demo's Edit tab:

• rename the Main section and split it into sections that match your story;
• tidy each segment's narration: Override narration here for this demo only, or Edit library narration to change it everywhere;
• open Edit steps to fix a step that grabbed the wrong element, add a pause, or Re-record this step;
• choose the pacing.

Step 5: preview

Open the Preview tab to play the storyboard: each captured screen with its narration as a caption. Read it as a buyer would.

Starting from a script instead

If you already have a written demo script, Demos → Import turns it into an outline of narrated segments. Then record the steps into each segment from the editor.

Tips

• Keep segments short, one idea each, so you can reuse them across demos.
• Record against stable demo data, so the screens look the same next time.
• Re-record a single step when your product's interface changes, rather than the whole demo.