In this article, an overview will be provided for Circuit Virtual Tours as they appear to visitors, including Circuit's most important features, and how a visitor can navigate the experience.
Tour Homepage
The Homepage is the main landing page of your Circuit virtual tour microsite.
Your main page of your virtual tour microsite is referred to as the tour homepage. Here is a break down of the navigation panel on the left-hand side:
At the top of the navigation panel is your logo. From your logo you can link to any page on your website that you would like.
Below the logo is your site's title and introductory message. These descriptive fields help the viewer understand that they have landed on your virtual tour page. The title and description are shown on search engines.
Under “Explore Tours” are your tour groups that branch directly off of your homepage. You will need to have at least one tour group to enable your homepage, but you can have as many as you'd like.
If you have Personalization enabled, this is where visitors can tailor a tour to meet their needs. Visitors can also access Personalization from within a tour.
At the very bottom of the navigation panel, you can add up to three Calls to Action.
Some other important aspects of the tour homepage:
Each tour group will have its own banner image. Alternatively, you can have a video instead of an image here.
If you have Maps enabled, visitors can jump right into your interactive map to explore your spaces by clicking "Open Map" in the bottom-right of the banner.
Each of your tours will appear as tour cards, with an image and a short description.
Tour Page
The Tour Page allows visitors to start the tour from a specific scene of their choosing.
Clicking the tour card image will open up the tour page. Visitors will see a longer description and cards for each scene on the tour. Clicking on a scene will take visitors directly to that scene. Visitors can click to “Start” the tour from the tour page or from the home page.
Splash Page
The Splash Page welcomes visitors to the tour and provides context for what's coming next.
Clicking start will take visitors to the splash page, also referred to as the tour splash screen. You can link directly to the splash screen of individual tours from your website. The splash screen is fully customizable, with a background image, your logo, tour title, welcome message, and your tour guide.
The background image of your splash screen will also be your tour card image and tour detail page banner image. Your tour guide can be any representative, ambassador, or just a logo, and it can be set globally across your tours or individually for each one.
Within Your Tours
Here is a breakdown of the navigation bar at the bottom of every scene:
The Tour Menu button allows viewers to open up a menu, browse upcoming scenes, and jump to a different scene. They can even Explore different tours and Personalize their own tour.
There are several ways for visitors to personalize their experience within a tour. They can click the Label icon on the main navigation bar, or click the Labels tab in the Tour Menu.
The tour progress indicator right next to the label icon shows the visitor how many scenes they have completed. This feature is meant to gamify the virtual tour experience, and urge visitors to progress further and complete tours.
The arrows to the left and right of the scene title allow the visitor to jump back to the last scene and go forward to the next scene. Hovering over the title allows visitors to view scene information.
The four icons on the right side of the navigation bar are simple and useful features:
The rotate icon sets the scene in motion slowly, and can be turned off by clicking the icon again.
The question-mark icon opens a scene tutorial for visitors who would like to learn more about how the virtual tour works.
The share icon opens a panel of social media sites that the tour can be shared to.
The full screen icon puts the tour in full-screen mode, and can be clicked again to go back to windowed mode.
Maps can also be accessed in the bottom left corner of 360° and gallery scenes that have been plotted on the map. Setting North on a 360° scene orients it on the map how it is in real life.
Similar to how Calls to Action can be set to appear on your home screen, they can also be set to appear in tours. You can select up to three Button CTAs that will appear on every scene within a particular tour. If you set up a Timed CTA on entry, like a notice or form, the viewer would see that on the first scene.
Scene Types
The first scene type is a 360° Scene. Visitors will land at the starting view with the initial guide card, and can choose to explore the scene by clicking around, or by clicking the “Next” button to progress through the hotspots. Hotspots highlight important parts of the scene, and keep visitors engaged and interacting for longer.
The second scene type is a Gallery Scene. They can be used to display images and videos in a slideshow format, and can have up to twenty (20) images or videos per gallery scene.
The last scene type is a Matterport Embed Scene, which is an interactive 3D rendering of a room or building. If you have existing Matterports of some of your spaces, you can easily add this content into your tours.
Finished Tour Page
The finished tour page inspires visitors to explore a new tour, or pick up where they left off.
Once a visitor has completed a tour, they will be greeted with the finished tour screen, which encourages them to explore other tours in your experience.
What is Circuit?
Now that you have a grasp of how to begin navigating the Circuit CMS, click the link below to learn some of the most commonly-used Circuit terminology.
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