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Home Screen

The Home screen is what the booth shows while it waits for the next guest: your branding, a start button or "tap to start" prompt, and, when needed, a notice from the booth. This page explains what starts a photo session, what the optional Tutorial screen does, where the operator's hidden tap zone is, and which notices can appear on the idle screen.

Designing the Screen​

The Home screen is the Start Screen tab of the booth's UI project in the Pix Design UI Editor. Set a Page Background (solid colour, image, gradient or, on this page only, a video), then add your logo, text and a Start Button block. Save, and the booth picks the change up on its next check-in, usually within seconds, with no restart. See UI Editor.

A large, centred start prompt works best in a booth; guests should understand in one glance that the screen is for them.

What Starts a Session​

A session leaves the Home screen only through one of these:

  • Touch anywhere on the screen, when that trigger is on in the Start Screen's session triggers.
  • A Start Button block, or any button or click area in your design whose action is to start the session. These work regardless of the touch-anywhere setting.
  • The F13 key, when the F13 trigger is on. Coin systems press this key when the guest has paid. See Hardware Payments.
  • Navigation keys (Space, S, Page Up, Page Down), when the navigation key trigger is on. Useful for a wired remote or foot switch.
  • The local Hardware API /start call from a bridge box.

The triggers are checkboxes on the Start Screen page in the UI Editor. Tap-to-start works from the very first launch after installation.

The Tutorial Screen​

If the UI project has a tutorial page with Enabled in session flow ticked, it appears right after Home. It is a Custom Screen in the UI Editor: put your instructions on it and give it a Next button. The guest taps Next or Skip to move on.

The Operator Tap Zone​

The top-right corner of every guest screen hides a 120 by 120 pixel zone with a faint lock icon. Two taps there within three seconds open the operator menu, after the Enter Admin PIN pad if the booth has a PIN. Guests do not see anything change if they brush past it once. See Operator Menu.

Notices on the Idle Screen​

The Home screen is also where the booth tells you about Pix Pro, without letting a guest change anything:

  • 60 minutes and 15 minutes before an Event Pass or the free trial ends, a notice appears on the idle screen so you can use a new Event Pass on the computer in time.
  • When Pix Pro has ended, a popup names what ended (for example "Your Event Pass has ended") and offers a Manage devices QR code to the Devices page. Guests see "Please call the operator."
  • When a card payment for Pix Pro failed, a payment-failed banner appears.
  • When the computer is blocked (a Pix Pro account with all its device places in use), the booth refuses to start sessions and shows a notice instead.

These prompts are information only. Every action, including Use an Event Pass on this computer, sits behind the operator menu and its PIN. See Pix Pro on the Booth.

Tap Guard After a Screen Change​

For a moment after the Home screen appears, and after the Tutorial appears, the booth ignores starts and Next or Skip taps. This stops a guest who is tapping rapidly from sailing through Home and the Tutorial into the session by accident. It is not configurable and you will not normally notice it.