Build an interactive product demo prospects can click through
An interactive product demo is a copy of your product's most convincing flow that a prospect can click without an account, a sales rep or a risk of breaking anything. Anticode builds that as a sandboxed app with sample data marked as a demo, which you can publish on your site or share by link before a call.
Pick one flow, not the whole product
The demos that persuade show a single before-and-after. Someone arrives with a problem, takes three to six actions, and sees the result that's the reason your product exists. A rota tool shows a messy week becoming a filled rota; an invoicing app shows a late invoice being chased automatically. Settings pages, team management and integrations rarely belong in a first demo, however much work went into them.
Write the flow down as steps before you build anything. If you can't say what the prospect should feel at the last step, the demo isn't ready to be designed.
Three kinds of demo, and which to build
| Format | How it works | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Guided tour | Numbered hints point at the next thing to click; the prospect can't wander off the path | A homepage demo for cold visitors |
| Sandbox | The key screens work freely with sample data; nothing is locked | Prospects who already know the problem and want to poke at it |
| Presenter mode | A rep drives on a shared screen, with a reset button and keyboard shortcuts to jump between scenes | Sales calls and conference stands |
You can ask for more than one in the same app: a sandbox with an optional "Show me around" tour, plus a hidden reset for whoever presents it. Say which comes first, because that decides what a visitor sees when the page loads.
Describing the demo to Anticode
Name the product, the person using it and the steps: "An interactive product demo of Shiftly for a café manager. Start on an empty week with four staff and their availability. The manager clicks Auto-fill, sees the rota appear with one clash highlighted, drags a shift to fix it, and sends the rota, which shows a 'Sent to 4 staff' confirmation. Mark it as demo data. Add a reset button." The Architect will ask up to three questions where the answer changes the build, for instance whether the tour should be guided or free.
Share real screens if you have them. Photos and screenshots can be added to a build and the model sees them, which helps it match your product's layout and colours. Everything visible in the demo is then drawn in code; it doesn't embed or load your live product.
- Use believable sample data. Realistic names, amounts and dates. Round numbers and "Test User 1" make a demo feel fake.
- Show the outcome in numbers the buyer cares about. "3 hours saved this week" lands better than a green tick.
- Keep one obvious next step on the final screen. A "Book a call" or "Join the beta" form, which reaches you through the app's contact form.
What the sandbox means for a demo
Anticode apps run with no network, so the demo can't call your real API, log anyone into your product or show live figures. For a demo this is mostly a strength: nothing a prospect does can touch production data, there's no demo account to maintain, and it behaves the same on every call. Anything that would need a server, such as "Sent to 4 staff", is simulated in the page and labelled as demo data where it matters, so nobody believes a real message went out.
State resets when the page reloads unless you ask for it to be saved in the visitor's browser. For presenter mode, a reset is usually what you want; for a sandbox a prospect returns to, saving progress locally is a nice touch.
Sharing it before and after a call
Publish the demo to an anticode.dev address or your own domain on a paid plan, then link it from your pricing or homepage. Before it's public, send a client review link to colleagues: they open the current preview with no account, leave comments tied to a section, and the link expires after 14 days by default or when you revoke it. After a call, sending the prospect the published demo lets them show it to whoever signs off the budget.
If the demo is standing in for a product that doesn't exist yet, the MVP builder and AI app prototype pages cover how far a single-device build can go in testing demand.
Limits
- No view tracking per prospect. Site analytics show page views per day by source, not which company clicked which step.
- No embedding your live product. The sandbox blocks iframes and outside requests.
- Drift from the real product. When your product's screens change, ask for the demo to be updated; it won't follow on its own.
Questions people ask
Can I put the demo inside my existing website?
The app is published as its own page with its own address. Link to it from your site with a clear button, or connect a subdomain such as demo.yourcompany.com on a paid plan so it feels like part of the same site.
Does the prospect need to sign up?
No. The demo opens straight away. If you want contact details, put an enquiry form on the last screen; what they type reaches you by email and in your Anticode dashboard.
Can I export the demo?
Yes, as one self-contained HTML file, which you can host wherever you like.