Overview
Sandbox demos, also referred to as non-guided demos, give viewers the freedom to explore your product more naturally. Instead of following a fixed, step-by-step path, viewers can click through the experience the way they would inside a live product.
This format is especially useful when you want to create a more open, self-serve environment for product discovery, live exploration, training, or embedded website experiences. Rather than telling a single story, sandbox demos allow you to create a clickable product environment with multiple possible paths.
The tradeoff is that sandbox demos typically require more planning than guided demos. Because viewers are not being directed screen by screen, the quality of the experience depends heavily on how your screens are captured, organized, and linked together.
Use this article to learn how to structure, capture, and build effective sandbox demos in Walnut.
This guide covers when sandbox demos are most effective, how screen linking works, how the auto-linking feature in the Walnut Chrome Extension can speed up the build, and the best practices that help teams create realistic exploration environments without overbuilding.
In This Guide
- What Is a Sandbox Demo?
- When to Use Sandbox Demos
- Guided vs Sandbox Demos
- How Sandbox Demos Work
- Screen Linking
- Auto-Linking in the Walnut Chrome Extension
- Capture Strategy and Build Planning
- Name Screens and Organize into Sections
- Avoiding Link Traps
- Understanding Build Investment
- Sandbox Lite Best Practice
- Best Practices
- Next Steps
What Is a Sandbox Demo?
A sandbox demo recreates a clickable product environment where viewers can move through the interface freely. Rather than advancing through guided annotations or a prescribed story path, the viewer interacts directly with the UI by clicking buttons, tabs, menus, cards, or navigation elements.
In practice, a sandbox demo functions like a product simulation. Each screen is connected to other screens through links, creating a flexible network of pathways that mirrors how a user might navigate in the real product.
This makes sandbox demos especially powerful for self-guided product discovery, hands-on learning, and open exploration experiences where you want viewers to investigate on their own.
When to Use Sandbox Demos
Sandbox demos are a strong fit when your goal is exploration rather than scripted storytelling.
Common use cases include:
- Website product tours that allow visitors to explore the interface freely
- Sales follow-up demos shared after a meeting for deeper exploration
- Training and enablement environments for internal teams or partners
- Event and booth experiences where viewers navigate independently
- Embedded demo experiences designed for product discovery on marketing pages
Use a sandbox demo when the value comes from letting the viewer click, explore, compare, and discover rather than follow a tightly structured narrative.
Guided vs Sandbox Demos
| Guided Demo | Sandbox Demo |
|---|---|
| Step-by-step storytelling | Open exploration |
| Controlled progression | Multiple navigation paths |
| Annotations direct the experience | Viewer interacts directly with the UI |
| Best for presentations and narrative flows | Best for self-serve discovery and hands-on exploration |
Many teams use both formats together. For example, you might begin with a guided demo to frame the story, then let the viewer continue into a sandbox area to explore additional workflows.
How Sandbox Demos Work
Sandbox demos rely on screen-to-screen linking to simulate product behavior. Each clickable element connects to another screen, and together those connections form the experience.
Instead of thinking in terms of steps, it is helpful to think in terms of a navigation map. Each screen acts like a node, and each click path creates a connection to another destination.
The more thoughtfully these screens are connected, the more realistic and intuitive the sandbox experience feels.
Screen Linking
Screen linking is the foundation of every sandbox demo. It determines where a viewer goes next when they click on a navigation element, button, tab, menu item, or interface component.
Common examples of screen linking include:
- A sidebar item linking to a different product area
- A top navigation tab loading a new dashboard view
- A button opening a detail screen, modal, or workflow state
- A record selection leading to a profile or report page
Strong linking makes the experience feel natural. Weak or incomplete linking can make the demo feel confusing or disconnected.
When planning a sandbox demo, think less about “what steps should I show?” and more about “what destinations should the viewer be able to reach?”
Auto-Linking in the Walnut Chrome Extension
Manually linking a sandbox demo can take time, especially when you are working with repeated navigation elements across many screens. To help speed up this process, the Walnut Chrome Extension includes an auto-linking feature that can detect matching interface elements across captured screens.
This is especially helpful for repeated UI patterns such as:
- Sidebar navigation
- Top navigation menus
- Tabs
- Buttons
- Recurring product controls
When the extension detects matching elements across your captured screens, it can automatically create links between those screens, reducing the amount of manual linking required.
Why Auto-Linking Helps
- Reduces repetitive manual work
- Speeds up sandbox build time
- Creates more consistent navigation behavior
- Works especially well when screens are captured cleanly and consistently
Auto-linking is a powerful accelerator, but it works best when paired with a thoughtful capture strategy and clean screen organization.
Capture Strategy and Build Planning
A strong sandbox demo usually starts before the editing phase. The quality of the build is heavily influenced by how screens are captured in the first place.
When preparing for a sandbox build, start by identifying the core product areas and main workflows you want viewers to explore. This gives you a clearer sense of which screens need to be captured and how those screens should relate to one another.
Capture Core Navigation Paths First
Start with the most important destinations and workflows:
- Main landing or dashboard screens
- Primary navigation destinations
- High-value workflows
- Key feature areas you want viewers to discover
This helps you build the foundation of the sandbox first, then expand strategically where needed.
Use Consistent Screen Sizes
Consistent capture dimensions make sandbox demos easier to link, edit, and maintain. When possible, capture using a standard extension preset such as desktop or laptop so layouts remain aligned across screens.
Inconsistent dimensions can make linking feel less polished and can introduce additional editing work later.
Name Screens and Organize into Sections
One of the easiest ways to make sandbox builds more manageable is to name and organize screens as you capture them.
Name Screens During Capture
Clear naming makes linking significantly easier later. Instead of relying on generic or duplicated screen names, label screens based on what they represent in the product.
Helpful examples include:
- Dashboard Overview
- Customer Record Detail
- Analytics Report View
- Settings Panel
- Opportunity Pipeline Board
This becomes especially important once you are working with many screens and need to quickly find the correct destination while linking.
Move Screens Into Sections During Capture
If your workflow allows, organize screens into logical sections as you capture them. This creates a cleaner structure from the start and makes the build easier to manage later.
Common section examples include:
- Home or Dashboard
- Reports and Analytics
- Customer Management
- Settings and Admin
- Workflow or Task Views
Sections help you think about the sandbox as a set of connected product areas rather than one long, flat list of screens.
The more intentional you are during capture, the easier the edit and linking process becomes later. Clean naming and section organization can save significant build time.
Avoiding Link Traps
One of the most common sandbox issues is the link trap. A link trap happens when a viewer reaches a screen but has no intuitive way to continue navigating.
The Way In / Way Out Rule
Every screen in a sandbox demo should have:
- A way in so the viewer can reach it naturally
- A way out so the viewer can continue exploring
For example, if a viewer clicks into a settings page, they should also be able to navigate back to a dashboard, move into another settings area, or continue into another meaningful destination.
If a screen only serves as a dead end, the experience can quickly feel broken or incomplete.
Test your sandbox like a first-time viewer. If you ever land on a screen and feel stuck, you have likely created a link trap that should be resolved before sharing.
Understanding Build Investment
Sandbox demos often require a higher build investment than guided demos because they involve more environment design and more connection logic.
In general, build effort increases as:
- The number of screens increases
- The number of navigation paths increases
- The number of possible viewer journeys increases
In other words, more screens usually means more linking, more testing, and more maintenance.
This does not mean sandbox demos are harder to build in every case. It means they benefit from more intentional scope planning. A well-scoped sandbox is usually far more effective than a sprawling one.
The goal is not to recreate your entire product. The goal is to create the right exploration environment for the audience and use case.
Sandbox Lite Best Practice
One of the strongest ways to keep sandbox demos effective and manageable is to build a Sandbox Lite environment.
Rather than linking every possible page, workflow, and product state, Sandbox Lite focuses on the most valuable destinations and interactions. This gives viewers enough freedom to explore while keeping the build clean, strategic, and easier to maintain.
Why Sandbox Lite Works
- Faster to build
- Easier to test and maintain
- Lower risk of broken or incomplete pathways
- More intentional viewer experience
- Better alignment to a specific sales, marketing, or enablement goal
A Sandbox Lite experience might include:
- A main home or dashboard screen
- One to three key workflows
- A reporting or results area
- A few supporting drill-down destinations
This approach is often more effective than trying to reproduce the full product. In many cases, focused exploration creates a better viewer experience than unlimited navigation.
Best Practices
- Start with the highest-value workflows and destinations
- Capture screens consistently using standard extension presets
- Name screens clearly during capture
- Organize screens into sections early
- Use auto-linking to accelerate repeated navigation structures
- Test for link traps before sharing
- Favor focused Sandbox Lite builds over overlinked environments
- Expand iteratively based on real viewer needs and engagement
Next Steps
Once your sandbox demo is built, you can extend its impact by embedding it on your website, adding it to a Playlist, including it in a Deal Room, or pairing it with a guided demo for a more structured entry point.
You can also use Walnut Insights to understand how viewers navigate the experience and which screens or flows receive the most engagement. This can help you refine the environment over time and prioritize which areas are worth expanding.
The strongest sandbox demos are not necessarily the biggest. They are the ones that are well-structured, intuitive to explore, and focused on the workflows that matter most.