The Audience Targeting app includes a simulator feature. The Audience Targeting Simulator allows administrators to preview the way portal pages appear to different users. It does so by allowing site administrators to modify the matched user segments or campaigns. The Audience Targeting Simulator is accessible via the Dockbar. The Simulator icon appears below the Add, Preview, and Edit icons but above the Edit Controls icon on the left side of the Dockbar. Clicking on the Simulator icon opens a panel which has two tabs: User Segments and Campaigns. By default, the Audience Targeting Simulator is only visible to site administrators and users with the View permission for the Audience Targeting Simulator.
The User Segments tab of the Audience Targeting simulator displays a list of all the user segments matched by the current user as well as all the user segments not matched by the current user. Any matched user segment can be unselected and any unmatched user segment can be selected. This allows site administrators to simulate how the website would appear to different users. Clicking on the Simulate button makes your website appear to you the way it would appear to the selected user segments. The simulation continues until you click the Stop Simulation button. This allows site administrators to navigate around their site as if they were a user that matched the selected user segments.
Figure 7.11: Audience Targeting Simulator
The Campaigns tab of the Content Targeting Simulator displays all matched campaigns and all unmatched campaigns. It does not offer a Simulate option yet. However, since campaigns target specific user segments, it’s easy to simulate how your site would look if certain campaigns were matched.