Work/Lowe’sApp and Lowe’s For Pros · 2014 – 2017

The Lowe’s app, rebuilt around the trip to the store

Three years on the Lowe’s account at Huge: the navigation and structure behind the redesigned shopping app, then Lowe’s For Pros, from account wireframes to a vision for how a contractor’s order gets from quote to job site.

Five screens from the redesigned Lowe's iOS app: sign in, shop, product scanner, in-store map and MyLowe's
Client
Lowe’s
Agency
Huge, Atlanta
Role
Interaction design
Dates
2014 – 2017
Scope
Shopping app navigation, structure and wireframes; Lowe’s For Pros account tools and vision

Part oneThe shopping app

01The problem

By 2014 the Lowe’s app had grown sideways. Two sliding menus, one on each side. Two lists that did nearly the same job. Pages that had little to do with shopping.

Every feature had a reason to be there, and together they hid the things people opened the app for. The July 2014 work paired a native cart with a navigation exploration, and the navigation raised the bigger question: what is this app for, and how do you get around it?

Hands rearranging printed app screens on a table during the navigation exploration
July 2014. The navigation as paper: every screen printed, laid out on a table and moved by hand before anything was drawn.
02Three decisions
  1. 1

    Decide what the app is not.

    Shopping for a drill and planning a deck are different jobs. The future state split them: a shopping app for task‑based shopping (store info, the map, the weekly ad, lists, the cart) and a project app for project‑based shopping (DIY projects, saved projects, videos, tools). The shopping app could then be organized around one thing.

    Turned down: one app that keeps doing both, with projects and inspiration sharing the menu with the cart.

    Future state slide: a Shopping App for task based shopping and a Project App for project based shopping, each with its feature list
    Future state. Two apps, two kinds of shopping. Everything on the left stays; everything on the right gets a home of its own.
  2. 2

    Six changes, all pointing the same way.

    The August 2014 concepts made the case in six moves.

    1. Simplify the shopping list. Two similar lists become one, so making a list means something.
    2. Merge the menus. One menu, and no more two‑sided sliding.
    3. Remove navigation nobody needs. Fewer pages, all of them about shopping.
    4. Rebuild the bottom bar. The four most‑used places, one tap away.
    5. Make the store prominent. Your store, its hours and its map, aware of whether you are in it.
    6. Emphasize shopping. The home screen sells, searches and scans.
  3. 3

    Put it on the bottom.

    Two concepts went to Lowe’s: navigation along the bottom, and navigation across the top with the store’s details leading the home screen. The bottom bar kept the four destinations under the thumb on every screen, and it is the one the wireframes carried forward.

    Turned down: top navigation. It gave the store pride of place and cost a reach on every tap.

    Concept one wireframes: four home screens with a bottom navigation bar
    Concept one, bottom navigation. Four versions of home: a product promotion, an app feature, MyLowe’s, and in store.
    Concept two wireframes: home and search screens with navigation across the top
    Concept two, top navigation. Store details, directions and the map lead; search opens into departments.
03The structure

With the direction set, the work became structure: an app flow that numbered every screen, then wireframes tab by tab.

App flow diagram for the consumer app: onboarding, shop and saved sections with numbered screens
Swipe sideways to see it all
App flow, October 2014. Onboarding, Shop, Saved, Cart and MyLowe’s, with global search and scan reachable from anywhere.
Wireframes of the Shop tab in three states: before log in, logged in, and logged in inside a store
Shop, three ways. The home screen changes with who you are and where you are: not logged in, logged in, and logged in inside a store.
Wireframes of the MyLowe’s tab before and after log in, and the store details screen
MyLowe’s. Log in once and the card, purchase history and preferences sit behind one tab.
Annotated wireframes of the Saved tab: saving a product to favorites and the saved lists screen
Swipe sideways to see it all
Saved. One list model in place of two: save from any product, pick the list, move the whole list to the cart.
04The redesign

By June 2015 the structure had a face: five tabs (Shop, Saved, Cart, Stores, MyLowe’s) and more than 130 screens of visual design for iOS.

Four onboarding screens from account creation: name, phone number, find your store, and choosing interests
Swipe sideways to see it all
Account creation in six short steps. Each one says what you get for it: track purchases with a phone number, see what is in stock at your store, pick what you are into.
Five screens: shop home, weekly ad, product list, compare and product detail
Swipe sideways to see it all
Shop. Home with your store’s hours, the weekly ad, a product list, side‑by‑side compare and the product page.
Five screens: store details, the in-store map with departments, the map with recently viewed products, MyLowe’s and a home profile room
Swipe sideways to see it all
In the store. Store details, a map that knows the aisle and bay of what you saved or looked at, the MyLowe’s card, and a home profile that keeps a room’s photos, notes and products together.

Part twoLowe’s For Pros

05The account

A contractor’s company does not shop like a person. Someone sets the rules, someone approves, someone buys.

The 2015 work gave Lowe’s For Pros that structure: three roles with different powers, and the screens each one needs. Sign‑up, a home for the account, purchase approvals, orders, catalogs, buyers, business units, purchasing settings and tax certificates.

Three personas: a parent admin who oversees the company, a child admin who oversees a business unit, and a buyer
Three roles. A parent admin runs the company account, a child admin runs a business unit, a buyer shops and submits for approval.
Wireframes of the Lowe’s For Pros account home and the manage purchase approvals table
Manage purchase approvals. One of eleven account areas wireframed for the parent admin.
06The vision

In 2017 Lowe’s asked a bigger question: how can the Lowe’s For Pros journey be better for everyone in it?

The work sessions started at a whiteboard. The happy path for one quote ran 72 to 96 hours, from the pro’s request to the account executive, the store, the corporate quote team and back. Four problems came out of it:

  1. Account executives take too long to review a customer’s purchase history.
  2. The quote process eats into the project timeline.
  3. There is no single view of the paperwork.
  4. Nobody has real‑time inventory.
Whiteboard notes in red marker: the quote process happy path, 72 to 96 hours, from pro request to approve or reject
The quote, as it was. Five hand‑offs and three to four days when everything goes right.
Whiteboard covered in the mapped pro journey with notes and sketches
The work session. The whole journey on one wall before it went into the map.
Current user journey map across seven stages from onboarding to fulfillment, with the people involved and the pain points at each stage
Swipe sideways to see it all
The current journey. Seven stages from onboarding to fulfillment, who touches each one, and where it hurts.

Then one picture for each opportunity, told as a story: Sarah, an account executive, and Joe, a contractor for a national builder.

Tablet on a construction site showing a customer history dashboard
Onboarding. Sarah pulls up Joe’s history on her tablet and has a full sales summary in minutes.
Laptop showing a shared quote with line items and an approve action
Quote approval. Sarah shares the quote, Joe edits and approves it, and she is told the moment he does.
Phone held in a lumber aisle showing order status for a contractor
On the floor. Sarah’s open orders on her phone, wherever she is in the store.
Tablet showing a week by week delivery schedule for a job site
Fulfillment. Joe builds a delivery schedule with his store: what reaches the job site, and when.
The Lowe’s For Pros concept on laptop, tablet, phone, watch and earpiece
One system. Laptop, tablet, phone, watch and voice, all reading from the same order.
07What was delivered
  • NavigationOne bottom bar in place of two side menus, and one list in place of two; concepts in August 2014, wireframes for Shop, Saved, Cart and MyLowe’s that September
  • StructureThe consumer app flow, October 2014, a compare feature that month, and annotated wireframes for the Saved and MyLowe’s tabs in November and December
  • RedesignThe iOS app in full visual design, June 2015: more than 130 screens across five tabs, with the scanner, the in‑store map and the home profile
  • For ProsAccount roles and eleven areas of account management wireframed in 2015; the journey map and vision concepts presented in May 2017
  • AlsoReSolve by Lowe’s, a home repair service, in 2016, and product and packaging renders for Iris, Lowe’s smart home system
Render of the Iris smart home hub on a console table in a hallway
Iris. The hub at home.
Render of the Iris hub in clear packaging on a blue base
Iris. Packaging study.
08My role

I was an interaction designer on the Lowe’s account at Huge Atlanta from 2014 to 2017. On the shopping app: the navigation exploration and concepts, the app flow, and the wireframes that set the structure the redesign was built on. On Lowe’s For Pros: the account wireframes, then the work sessions, journey map and vision concepts. Visual design, strategy and the client relationship were the wider Huge team’s, and the work shown here is that team’s as much as mine.