Previewing as anonymous, end user, agent, admin – Gravity CX

Ref: C04 · Track: Knowledge Base Admin · Time to complete: ~3 min

Why this matters

As a KB admin, you see everything. That's a problem when you're trying to verify "will a customer actually see this article?". The theme preview lets you see the help center exactly as someone in each role would.

The Egyptian-eye icon 👁

In Guide admin, look for the eye icon (it's stylised like an Egyptian eye). Click it to open the theme preview.

A small menu appears. Pick the role:

Role	What you see
Anonymous	A visitor with no account. Only content marked "Visible to everyone".
Signed-in end user	A logged-in customer. Content visible to "signed-in users".
Signed-in end user in segment X	Segment-specific content (e.g. VIP customers, partners).
Agent	What agents see when browsing the help center.
Admin	Everything — same as your default view.

Click a role and the entire help center reloads as that role. Hidden content disappears; custom segment content appears.

Why this is essential

Admins see all articles by default. Without the preview, you'll accidentally publish content you think is public — but it's actually visible only to logged-in users — and wonder why the deflection rate didn't move. The preview is the only reliable way to verify.

Checking user-segment content (see C13)

The preview is critical when you've set up a user segment. Example:

You create a segment for "EvoStockist partner org" (C13).
You mark an article visible only to that segment.
You want to confirm only people in that segment see it.

Preview as: 1. Anonymous → article should NOT appear. 2. Signed-in random user → article should NOT appear. 3. Signed-in user in the EvoStockist segment → article SHOULD appear.

If any of those three fail, your segment config is wrong.

How it differs from Incognito browsing

Incognito shows you what a truly anonymous person sees — but you can't easily "be" a signed-in segment member.
Theme preview lets you fake any role without creating test accounts.

For production spot-checks, use theme preview. For final sanity-checks before a launch, hit the public URL in Incognito too.

Gotchas

Preview is session-based. It lasts until you close the preview or navigate away. Don't rely on it for long testing sessions.
Preview respects current permissions. If you just changed an article's permissions two seconds ago, preview may still show the old state. Refresh.
Theme previews in sandbox are identical to production. Validate in sandbox (see C19) before rolling changes.

Quick check — have you got this?

You publish an article for public consumption but customers say "I can't find it — says I need to log in". How do you verify?
What's the difference between previewing as anonymous vs as a signed-in end user?
You want to check a partner-only article is hidden from the public. What steps?

Answers

- Preview as Anonymous. If the article isn't visible there, its permission isn't "Visible to everyone". - Anonymous = no login. Signed-in end user = logged-in customer. Some content is public, some requires login. Both roles are different visibility sets. - Preview as Anonymous (should be hidden) and Signed-in random user (should be hidden) and Signed-in partner segment member (should be visible).

C12 — Controlling access at the article level
C13 — User segments: partner-only or VIP-only content
C19 — Using your sandbox to experiment safely