Every support call started cold. Associates picked up knowing nothing.
Oracle Live Experience was a multi-channel customer engagement platform embedded directly into enterprise applications. The technology was capable — SMS, audio, video, screen share, and co-browsing all in one SDK. But the experience was broken from the first second: associates answered calls with zero visibility into what the customer was doing, what page they were on, or what they had already tried. Context had to be reconstructed verbally, every time.
The competitive insight: rivals like Salesforce Service Cloud and Genesys had richer routing engines, but none offered true in-application engagement — the ability to see exactly what a customer was doing inside a web app without asking them to describe it. That was Oracle Live Experience's differentiator. The design challenge was making that capability the default experience, not a premium feature admins had to configure manually.
Three problems. Every customer and associate said the same things.
Interviews across customer support teams, usability sessions with live associates, call recording analysis, and a competitive audit of Genesys, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Zendesk Talk. The findings converged around three structural problems the existing platform made actively worse.
Context blindness — every call starts as if it's the first
Associates had no visibility into where the customer was in the application, what actions they had taken, or what error state they were in. Every engagement began with a verbal reconstruction — "So, what exactly are you seeing right now?" — adding 60–90 seconds before useful troubleshooting could begin. Customers felt they were talking to someone who could not help them until they had finished explaining.
Context lossChannel fragmentation — switching support channels meant starting over
When a text conversation needed to escalate to a call, or a call needed to become a screen share, the customer was transferred or called back — a new session with no memory of what had been established. The platform had the technical capability to stay in-session across channels. The product design had not connected those capabilities into a single escalation path.
Channel switchingVerbal troubleshooting fails — "click the red button... no, the other one"
Complex issues — failed checkouts, form validation errors, configuration screens — required associates to guide customers through multi-step UI flows using only verbal description. This created compounding misalignment: the associate was describing something they could not see, and the customer was executing something they did not fully understand. Average Handle Time (AHT) for these cases was 3–4× the baseline.
Visual guidance"I could hear the frustration in their voice, but I had no idea what they were actually looking at. I'm describing buttons I can't see, on a page I've never opened. It's guesswork."— Support Associate · Research interview, Oracle Live Experience
Two people. One wants resolution. One wants clarity.
Research surfaced two distinct users with contradictory stress responses — both made worse by the same design failure: the absence of shared context. Designing for both meant building a platform where information flowed without either user having to request it.
The Frustrated Resolver
End-customer. Tech-savvy, time-poor, high stakes. They are already in a failure state — a checkout that won't complete, a configuration they can't find, an error they don't understand. Their psychological threshold is low. They do not want to explain their problem. They want someone who already knows it.
"I didn't have to say anything. They just knew where I was. That was the first time support didn't feel like starting from zero."
The Multitasking Associate
Support agent. Operating across 3–5 simultaneous sessions, switching context between customers and issue types with no visual continuity between them. Information overload is their primary failure mode. They need fewer inputs — not more. A sidebar that shows only what is relevant to this customer, right now.
"If I have to ask you your name and what page you're on, I've already lost two minutes and your trust."
The design principle that followed: context should arrive before the associate says hello. Every design decision was evaluated against this standard — does this surface the right information automatically, or does it require the associate to ask for it?
Three phases. Each one extended what "support" could mean.
The platform evolved in three distinct design phases — each one solving a different category of the core problem. Phase 1 established presence. Phase 2 established intelligence. Phase 3 established collaboration.
Phase 1 — The Reactive Widget
A "Click to Call" button embedded in the host application. Simple, functional, universally available. The problem: it treated every customer as identical. A user in a technical error state received the same interface as a user browsing an FAQ. No routing intelligence, no context passed to the associate. Presence without intelligence.
Phase 2 — The Contextual Scenario Engine
Introduced Engagement Scenarios — rule-based configurations that adapted the widget interface based on which page or state the customer was in. A technical troubleshooting page triggered a "Video + Screen Share" widget. A general FAQ page offered only "SMS." Associates received a Context Attribute Sidebar pre-populated with customer name, cart value, page URL, and routing rule — before the first word was spoken. Intelligence without visual depth.
Phase 3 — The Collaborative Canvas
Added Live Annotations — the ability to freeze a video frame and draw directly on the customer's screen. Associates could circle a button, draw a path, highlight an error. The annotation appeared on the customer's screen in real time. "Click the red button" became "click this" with a circle around it. The associate became a guide, not a voice. Collaboration in place of description.
The key escalation design decision: Progressive Escalation. Sessions begin lightweight (SMS or audio) and upgrade to video or screen share only when the complexity demands it. This respected customer privacy — In-App-Only sharing meant associates saw only the application, never the desktop — while preserving the full capability for cases that needed it.
Four features. One principle — context arrives before the first word.
The final platform shipped four interconnected features, each one eliminating a specific category of context failure from the support workflow.
- Engagement Scenarios — Rule-based configurations. The widget surface adapts automatically based on which page the customer is on. No admin coding required.
- Context Attribute Sidebar — Associates see only data relevant to the triggered routing rule: customer name, cart value, current page, last action. Cognitive load eliminated at the point of answer.
- Progressive Escalation Path — In-session channel upgrades from SMS → audio → video → screen share without disconnecting or restarting. One session, any complexity.
- Live Annotations — Freeze frame + draw on screen. The associate becomes a visual guide. Highest single-feature impact on AHT and customer satisfaction.
Associate Desktop — Context Attribute Sidebar + live video session · Image coming soon
Live Annotations — the associate becomes a visual guide.
During usability testing, we observed associates spending 40% of complex call time on verbal direction-giving. Live Annotations collapsed that to seconds. Associates freeze the shared frame, draw on it, and the annotation appears on the customer's screen immediately. Tested phrases: "I felt like they were standing next to me."
Live Annotation tool — freeze frame + draw on customer screen · Image coming soon
Three outcomes. Measured against context-blind support.
"The transition from a basic chat to a visual co-browse felt like magic. I didn't have to explain the problem — the agent simply saw it and drew the solution on my screen."— Customer · Retail pilot cohort, Oracle Live Experience
Context attributes eliminated the opening ritual — 60–90 seconds saved per call
Before: associates spent the first 60–90 seconds asking customers who they were, what page they were on, and what they had already tried. After: Context Attribute Sidebar pre-populated with name, cart value, page URL, and triggered routing rule — automatically, before the call connected. That time was recovered on every single interaction.
Visual resolution on first contact — 15–20% reduction in follow-up tickets
Live Annotations and Screen Share eliminated the class of issues that verbal troubleshooting could not close. Associates could freeze a frame and draw the solution directly on the customer's screen. Issues that previously required a follow-up call — "I'll email you the steps" — were resolved visually in session. Follow-up tickets dropped 15–20% in the pilot cohort.
Channel fluidity produced the highest CSAT in the product's history — 90%+
The SMS-to-screenshare upgrade path — where a customer could begin with a text and escalate to a shared visual session without disconnecting — produced the highest satisfaction scores in Oracle Live Experience's pilot history. Customers in this cohort consistently described the experience as effortless. The technology was not new; the design of the path between channels was.
Download the full case study PDF — engagement scenario architecture, annotation UX research, and pilot results.