Research Case Study – Oracle
Evolving Oracle’s developer experience through insights-led content strategy
How it started
Oracle’s Java team had spent more than two decades building one of the most widely used developer communities in the world. But as the developer landscape changed — faster tools, new platforms, shifting languages — the content experience hadn’t kept pace.
The Java organization produced an enormous volume of articles, videos, and tutorials. Yet developers increasingly struggled to find what they needed, and many viewed the experience as dated or inconsistent.
The challenge wasn’t awareness — it was experience clarity. The team needed to realign how they communicated with developers around the way those developers actually learn, search, and solve problems.
What we did
We began with an audit of Oracle’s developer content ecosystem — tens of thousands of assets spanning microsites, blogs, videos, documentation, and community posts. We mapped the full content journey from the developer’s point of view: where they entered, how they navigated, and what signaled trust or friction.
We also interviewed developers, content creators, and product leads to understand how the Java team’s internal processes shaped the external experience.
Our A-ha moment came when we saw that content quality wasn’t the issue — content orchestration was. Developers trusted individual pieces, but not the system. Repetition, overlap, and misalignment made it hard for even the best work to be found or understood in context.
We helped the team create a new content strategy framework grounded in experience design principles:
Relevance and clarity: Defined content roles and journeys to ensure the right asset appeared at the right time in the learning path.
Consistency and trust: Established unified editorial standards and tone across all Java content.
Usability and discoverability: Streamlined site architecture and metadata to make high-value assets easier to find and navigate.
Governance and workflow: Built a process for evaluating, curating, and sunsetting content to keep the library current and credible.
The framework aligned multiple internal teams — product, marketing, editorial, and developer relations — around a single, consistent content experience.
How it’s going
Oracle’s Java team now delivers a developer experience built on trust, clarity, and usability. The framework guides every new content initiative, ensuring relevance and coherence across all touchpoints — from community tutorials to enterprise resources.
Internally, the process created shared accountability and a common language between content creators and engineers. Externally, developers now experience Oracle as a trusted, consistent learning partner rather than a fragmented publisher.
The shift wasn’t about producing more — it was about producing with intention. By viewing content through the lens of customer experience, Oracle moved from information overload to information confidence — helping developers find what they need faster, understand it better, and stay connected longer.
