Focus Areas

Focus areas allow you to pick which parts of Screen Manager ecosystem a user role actually needs, and everything else can be hidden from that user's navigation and editors.

Focus areas dashboard allows you to create1, view and manage2 Focus areas.

Focus areas do not restrict access. They only decide what is shown. What a user is allowed to do is decided by the permissions on their user role, exactly as before. See Focus areas vs. permissions.

When to use a focus area

For example:

A café manager who only uploads a daily offer and sets when it plays does not need Layouts, Zones, Tag-based playlists, Campaigns, Sync walls or Data Sources. With a focus area, they will never see them and instead will land on the pages that you choose.

Focus areas are a good fit when:

• The app does more than the job needs. New users are overwhelmed by menu entries and playlist-editor tabs that are irrelevant to them.
• You have distinct job profiles — content editors, screen technicians, marketing, kitchen/menu staff — and each one lives in a different corner of the product.
• You want people to land where they work. A focus area can set the page a user sees first after signing in.
• You are rolling out to non-technical staff (branch managers, shop assistants) and want training to be "here are your three screens", not a tour of the whole product.

You do not need a focus area when a role already covers a small surface, or when the people using it are administrators who need everything.

How to create a Focus area?

1. An account admin creates a focus area in My Organization → Focus Areas 1 → Create Focus Area2.

2. Give your new area a Name (required), an optional Description3 (this is what admins see when assigning it to a role, so describe the job, e.g. "Branch manager — daily offers") and then choose the parts of the app that should be kept visible by adding a tick next to them4:

Navigation

Screens, Playlists, Media, Scenes, Apps, Tags, Schedules, Sensor Analytics, Menu Boards with its own tabs (Menu boards, Meal Templates, Custom Pictograms), Customer Feedback, Proof of Play, Data Sources.

Playlist editor

General tab with its sections: Aspect ratio & media fit, Audience targeting (AI triggers), Playlist tags, Sync wall settings), Layout tab (zones), Tag-based tab, Campaign tab.

At least one element must be ticked — an empty focus area cannot be saved.

3. Optionally pick a Start from a template5. It pre-fills in the selection, which you can then adjust.

4. Optionally define a landing page6 for the focus area, so chosen users start on the page that matters to them. Select one form the list. Leave it on Default and users keep the normal destination after signing in.

If a role has several focus areas, the first one that declares a landing page wins, in the order the role lists them.

Then click Save to finish the creation.

5. Assign the focus area to one or more user roles.

Go to User roles1 in My Organization, find the user2 you want to assign to the area and click on Focus areas3 and choose Areas you want to assign to this user by adding a tick next to them4.

Predefined roles cannot carry a focus area. Roles marked as predefined are shared by every account, so a focus area attached to one would apply to all of them. Create a custom role instead and set up it's focus areas.

Every user with that role will see a reduced interface, based on your choices in step 2.

Roles without a focus area are unaffected — they keep the full interface.

A role can carry several focus areas. The user then sees the union of them: anything ticked in any of the assigned focus areas stays visible.

Editing and deleting focus areas

Editing a focus area allows you to change it's settings. Doing so, updates every role that uses it immediately.

Deleting can't be done while any role still uses it. Firstly, remove the focus area from any roles and then repeat the process.

To remove the areas from the roles go to User roles1 in My Organization, find the user2 you want to delete from the area and click on Delete3 near the Focus areas buttonand confirm the the action by pressing Delete again.

Example use cases

1. Branch manager who only posts the daily offer

The job: upload a picture or short video, drop it into the branch playlist, decide when it plays. Nothing else.

Focus area — "Daily content":

• Navigation: Media, Playlists, Schedules
• Playlist editor: General tab → Aspect ratio & media fit
• Lands on: Playlists

Result: four menu entries instead of a dozen. Opening a playlist shows a single General tab with the display settings — no Layout, no Tag-based, no Campaign, no audience targeting. Start from the Content & Scheduling template and untick Scenes if they should not build scenes.

2. Installation technician

The job: register screens, pair them, check they are online and showing the right thing. They never touch content.

Focus area — "Screen operations":

• Navigation: Screens, Schedules
• Playlist editor: nothing
• Lands on: Screens

Result: they sign in directly on the Screens list. Playlists, Media, Scenes and all integrations are gone from the navigation. This is the Screen Operations template unchanged.

3. Restaurant chain — kitchen/menu staff

The job: keep menu boards accurate — prices, availability, meal templates. They are not marketers and never build playlists.

Focus area — "Menu management":

• Navigation: Menu Boards → Menu boards tab, Meal Templates tab
• Lands on: Menu boards

Result: Menu Boards appears as a top-level menu entry rather than inside the Integrations fly-out, and it opens with only the two tabs they use — Custom Pictograms stays hidden because branding is somebody else's job.

4. Marketing agency running campaigns for a client

The job: build layouts and zones, target screens by tag, run campaigns. They should not be reconfiguring screens or data integrations.

Focus area — "Campaign design":

• Navigation: Playlists, Media, Scenes, Apps, Tags
• Playlist editor: General (all sections), Layout, Tag-based, Campaign
• Lands on: Playlists

Result: the full creative toolset, none of the screen fleet management. Start from Advanced Playlist Design and add Media and Scenes.

5. Analyst who only reads reports

The job: look at proof of play and sensor analytics. Read-only.

Focus area — "Reporting":

• Navigation: Sensor Analytics, Proof of Play
• Lands on: Sensor Analytics

Result: two menu entries, promoted to the top level. Pair this with a role whose permissions are read-only — the focus area removes the clutter, the permissions do the actual restricting.

6. Combining two focus areas on one role

A store supervisor both posts content and checks the screens are alive. Rather than a third bespoke definition, assign "Daily content" and "Screen operations" to the same role. The user sees the union: Media, Playlists, Schedules, Screens — and lands on Playlists, because that focus area is listed first.

This keeps the definitions reusable: fixing "Daily content" once updates every role that includes it.

Focus areas vs. permissions

Permissions (user role) - what a user is allowed to do.

Focus areas - what a user sees.

A focus area can only ever hide. It can never reveal something the role does not permit. If a role has no permission for Screens, ticking Screens in a focus area changes nothing — the entry still does not appear.

Conversely, a user who types (or bookmarks) the URL of a page their focus area hides will still open it, filtered by their permissions exactly as before. That is by design: focus areas are about a calm interface, not about security.

Never describe a focus area to a customer as restricting access. If something must be off limits, use the role's permissions.

Troubleshooting

"I ticked a page but the user still doesn't see it." Check the role's permissions. The entry appears only when the role permits it and the focus area both allow it.

"A page opens empty." Every tab or section inside it is hidden. Choose at least one part of the app, or hide the page entirely.

"The Focus Areas page is greyed out." Focus areas follow the same plan gate as user roles (User Roles and Permissions). If that feature is not part of your plan, contact your administrator.