Documentation:PSAAS:Administrator:Designer:Public

Designer

Important

These help topics are intended for the latest release of Designer (version 9).

• If you are running an older version of Designer (i.e. 8.x), some of the features and functionality described here might not apply. In that case, you should refer to this version of the Designer Help. (You can check your version in the top-right corner of the Designer interface.)
• If you are new to Designer 9 after running an 8.x version, refer to this section for important details about working in Designer 9.

If you have any questions about the features and functionality available in your version, contact your Genesys representative.

Designer is a web-based tool for developing self-service (IVR) and assisted service (routing) applications that run on the Genesys Cloud platform. It is an omnichannel solution, enabling you to craft applications that handle voice, chat, and email interactions.

This video shows a quick overview of Designer and demonstrates a few of its latest features:

What's new

Here are some of the features and capabilities you'll find in the latest version of Designer:

Microservices platform	Designer is now built as a microservice, which means you get faster access to new features and zero downtime during upgrades.
Chatbots	You can use the Bot block in the Self Service phase of your application to add a chatbot to your application. Chatbots are software applications that apply automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding to listen and respond to customers in a way that resembles a conversation with a live agent. You can define and manage your bot resources in the new Bot Registry.
Streams-based workflow	Designer now features a streams-based workflow, where you can generate multiple builds of an application and assign them to different streams. For example, you can have one build of an application assigned to QA, and another build of the same application assigned to your Live operations. You can manage these builds from the application properties. In addition, you can now designate certain resources for use in testing, so that non-production builds do not reference resources that are being used in your live operations.
Omnichannel capability	"Build once, deploy anywhere." A single call flow now handles both voice calls and chat interactions.
Email capability	Digital applications now have email capability, with new blocks added to support this feature. Use the Send Email block to send an email to a customer, and the Automated Message block to send an automated confirmation to a customer that their email was received.
Predictive Routing	If your site is enabled for Genesys Predictive Routing, you can use the new Predictive Routing block to add this powerful routing capability to your applications.
Rich media	For chats, customers can now click a "quick reply" button instead of manually typing a response. The quick replies offered are based on the DTMF Key options set up in the Menu block. In addition, the Play Message block has a new option that lets you specify an image to display within the chat window.
Social media channels	Designer is now capable of handling messages coming from Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and SMS. If a customer contacts you from one of these social media platforms or services, Designer detects which channel the message is coming from and launches the appropriate application for managing and routing that type of interaction. If applicable, Designer can also send or post messages back to the incoming channel.

Check out the Designer page in the PureEngage Cloud Release Notes for more information about these and other features and improvements to Designer. If you've been using a version of Designer older than 9, you should also review some of the changes in how Designer 9 works.

What do you want to do?

Use these topics as a starting point to find the information you need.

Getting started

Learn the basics.

• Getting started with Designer
• Using the Designer user-interface
• Understanding the application workflow
• Designer roles and permissions
• Managing variables

Managing resources

View and manage your application resources.

• Business Controls (Business Hours, Special Days, Emergency Flags, Data Tables)
• Media files and collections
• Digital messaging resources
• Speech grammars and Bots

Building applications

Using the various blocks to build applications in Designer.

• Application phases
• Working with blocks

Reporting and Analytics

Designer has an integrated set of dashboards that provide detailed information about your operations.

• Designer Analytics
• Managing the dashboards

For Designer Administrators

Manage users and their access to resources (Designer Administrators only).

• Partition-based Access Control (PBAC)

For users of previous versions of Designer (8.x)

If you are new to Designer 9 after working in a previous version, there are some things you should be aware of when working in Designer 9:

• Designer now uses a new application workflow based on builds and streams. You can learn more about this new type of workflow on the Application Workflow page.

• If you make any changes to a Business Control, Audio Resource, or Speech Grammar resource, those changes now take effect immediately if the resource is being referenced by the LIVE production build. However, if you make a change to a data table, you must publish the data table for the changes to take effect in any builds that are referencing it.

• In previous versions of Designer, any changes made to an application took effect immediately after the application was published. In Designer 9, you must generate a new build and assign it to the LIVE stream for the changes to take effect.

You might want to practice with this new streams and builds workflow. One way you could do this is by cloning an existing application and experimenting with making changes, generating builds, and assigning the builds to streams. When you are comfortable with the workflow, you can then start making changes in your original applications.