Note:
The information in this article is about home carousels, but can also be applied to site carousels (excluding personalized carousel). Site managers can govern their site carousels if given permissions by the App manager.Overview
The carousel is a vital component of Simpplr's interface. It allows the most important or most recent content and videos to be displayed for all your users on their home page, or on the front page of any site within the intranet.
As an App manager, you can edit the content that appears in the Home carousel by hovering your mouse over the upper right-hand corner of the carousel to make the drop-down ellipsis. Click the ellipsis, then click Edit carousel.
Search for new content, videos or campaigns to add to the carousel display at the top, or add an external link by pasting the URL into the box labeled Webpage or video URL.
Remove content currently visible in the carousel by clicking x next to each piece of content you wish to remove. Note this will not actually remove the content from your intranet, only the carousel.
Clicking the hamburger icon next to the x button allows you to click and drag content to a different order. This will reflect the order in which content is displayed on the carousel.
Showcase vs Standard layout
There are two options to choose from for displaying your carousel content; showcase and standard. The showcase layout (recommended) will display your content as an ever-moving wheel that moves on the home dashboard. It also allows you to toggle the carousel and see different content displayed.
Note:
With the showcase layout, you can also stop the auto-play using the ellipsis dropdown in the top right corner of the carousel.
The standard layout shows one piece of content on the carousel. You still have the option to manually toggle to the next piece of content with this layout.
The gear icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the page also allows you to edit the home carousel. Just click the gear, then Carousel.
Personalized carousel
As of the Laki release, App managers can enable the option for users to have a personalized carousel, meaning every user will see curated content personalized for them in addition to the content the App manager has set. Once that curated content is viewed, it will move to a different place in the carousel, making unviewed content the first shown on the user's home carousel.
Content will remain in the personalized carousel for 14 days, after which it will be removed. If content has been removed or if the App manager did not fill the carousel with at least six pieces of content, Simpplr's content recommendation engine will add personalized recommended content for each user behind any remaining curated content.
When enabling the personalized carousel for the first time, it's best practice for App managers to remove all existing content from the carousel, then add back only what you want users to see that's of high importance. Reason being, if content remains in the carousel for 14 days, it will automatically be removed so other curated content can take its place.
To enable personalized carousel:
- Click the menu icon in the top right of the carousel and click Edit carousel. Or click Edit dashboard > Edit carousel.
- Under Personalized carousel, click Enable.
Note:
If you disable personalized carousel, the content that was present upon enabling will re-populate the carousel.When personalized carousel is enabled, content that's been in the carousel longer than 14 days will automatically be replaced with fresh recommended content. The order of content in the carousel prioritizes content added by app managers over recommended content.
If more than six pieces of content are manually added to the carousel, this will essentially void the personalization. If you want users to see personalized content, best practice is to not add more than two or three items manually, as manually added items will always take precedence in users' carousels over personalized content.
If you as an individual user published content, or have already seen it, you won't receive personalized content recommendations for it. This is because Simpplr is counting you as already having viewed it. This happens often with smaller organizations where most content is published through one or two users who by default see all the content before anyone else.
Note:
Carousel content from a private site will only be visible to members of that site.
Comments
Hi Simpplr Support!
Question about the auto-play feature.
Does each user have to start and stop the auto-play, or can an App Admin stop the auto-play for an organization's dashboard?
Hi Aileen! The App manager can control the default settings on the home dashboard like auto-play and standard/showcase layout. However, the End user can always choose to start or stop auto-play. So if the App manager sets auto-play to off, the End user will see it as off, but can choose to turn it on for their own view if they wish.
Is there a max number of pages that can be featured in the home carousel at any given time?
Hi Francine. I'm not sure the exact limit to content you can add to the carousel, but best practice is to not overwhelm your users, and keep it at a maximum of 10-12 pieces of content at any time. I tested this and was able to add 40+ pieces of content, but that's definitely not recommended.
I understand "curated" content by the app manager. But, how does "personalized carousel" automatically recommend new pieces of content? What criteria determines the other "personalized content" shown for each Team Member? Is it based on sites where they are followers or Members? Is it based on their department or profile criteria?
Hey Angela. The carousel is populated using the same algorithm we use to determine content recommendations.
At a high level, the model bases recommendations on:
Other factors:
Hello!
I assume that this feature can be toggled on/off somewhere at the app level by App managers? I'd want to test it out on a site first before enabling it globally.
Thanks,
Michelle
Hi Michelle. If you're referring to the entire carousel, you can remove all content from the carousel or not add any at all. This will effectively remove the carousel from all users' dashboards. You can also disable carousels globally by going to Manage > Application > Governance and unchecking the Carousel options. But if you're asking about the personalized carousel specifically, only users who can control the home dashboard get to enable or disable personalized carousel.
Can I enable personalized carousel just for a specific user?
Hi Laetitia. Personalized carousel cannot be set for only one individual; only the whole org.
Hello Simpplr Support,
Can you share any insight on what the character limit is for the top carousel copy that is pulled from the news/pages we create? I’m noticing that if we use a headline and/or subheads, it’s difficult to read the copy it’s pulling since it’s not formatted or spaced the same way.
If we don’t have ability to change that I’m thinking we need to adjust how write our content so it pulls through in a digestible way.
Hi Ginny Waters
The carousel preview standardly pulls in 255 characters. If this doesn't seem right, please submit a ticket and we will look further into it.
I hope this helps!
Katie Fred
Technical Support
Hello! How long do pieces of content stay on the home carousel? Is it until we manually remove it, or will it fall off on its own after a certain amount of time?
Hi Rosie. If personalized carousel is enabled, content that's been in the carousel longer than 14 days will automatically be replaced with fresh recommended content. But if you have content manually added, it'll stay there until you remove or replace it.
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