LOWES: NEVER STOP IMPROVING UX
Lowe’s Companies has evolved from a regional hardware store into a nationwide chain of home improvement superstores focused toward global expansion. The #2 US home improvement chain (after The Home Depot), Lowe’s operates 1,820 stores in the US, along with some 300 in Canada, and 10 in Mexico, as well as an e-commerce site. Its stores sell roughly 37,000 products for DIY-ers and professionals for home improvement and repair projects, such as lumber, paint, plumbing and electrical supplies, tools, and gardening products, as well as appliances, outdoor power equipment, home fashions and furniture. Lowe’s is also the second-largest US home appliance retailer after Sears.
It’s time to re-examine how Lowe’s treats their e-commerce experience. In the first quarter of 2017, there has been a marked rise in bankruptcies of traditional brick and mortar retail. Including within this is interesting news regarding Lowe’s largest competition within the home appliance market — Sears. And while Sears has merged with corporate monolith Amazon, Lowe’s largest competition within home improvement — Home Depot — is reporting record sales boasting a 43 percent rise in revenue over the past seven years, and is one of the top performers in the Dow this year. They stopped building stores back in 2008 and have instead focused on efficiency — marketing to pros that will continue to shop in-store- and creating a strong digital presence.
Taking this into account I embarked on an analysis of current practices and digital standards — focusing on navigational strategies within e-commerce that promote efficiency and product visibility.
I started with a contextual analysis of Lowe’s Gowanus location. While many of Lowe’s in-store users reflected a want to browse and peruse, I focused on user behavior and navigation — how they interacted with in-store signage for navigation and how Lowe’s employees were utilized. The most important take-away? Clear wayfinding is important.

From there I shifted to the web, spending time diving into comparative digital layouts

A brief foray into the competitive landscape

Before spending a majority of my business analysis on Lowe’s largest competition — Home Depot. While Lowe’s has had steady revenue growth in recent years, it’s made a paltry $65 billion last year, compared to Home Depot’s $94.6 billion. So I examined Home Depot’s current business practices, their digital tasks flows, and ran a brief heuristic analysis of their presence. While Home Depot has a corner on the market, they digitally still have room to improve. Both their website and mobile task flows have over 10 screens and 14 actions each, and while they generally maintain digital standards, they lack in accessibility and desirability.

Turning to Lowe’s digital presence I completed a full ABBY analysis. Highlighting problem areas — consistency, clarity, credibility- I took note of some of most egregious errors. Formatting inconsistencies and excessive promotional materials impede user flow and push useful information toward the bottom of the page. While the use of green for important calls to action raises accessibility questions for individuals suffering from deuteranomaly — the most common form of color blindness.

Taking into account my persona Daniel, my initial task flow for Lowe’s resulted in 10 screens and 14 actions — similar to Home Depot. Usability tests on the current site returned similar feedback as I had concurred from my heuristic analysis. Three out of the five I tested had trouble getting through the promotional material to find useful information. From this I synthesized that while there is room for improvement within categorizations, an important first step was ensuring that necessary information was visible and accessible to users.
How might we reformat Lowe’s website to simplify findability and showcase products?
My initial wireframe revisions sought to address navigational visibility so that products could be found faster and easier. I bumped the search engine out of the navigation bar, brought the bottom navigation to the top nav, and created a functional department drop down that allowed users like Daniel to explore the categories and subcategories of each department without having to navigate through additional pages.
By moving navigational interfaces into drawers, I opened up opportunities to showcase both products AND promotional materials alike.
Let’s take a look at how our user Daniel would navigate through our first revision:
Daniel opens to the simplified layout and is greeted with a few navigational options. Coming to the site needed to replace a French Door refrigerator, he clicks on departments, which opens up the initial drop down. Clicking on appliances opens up that department’s subcategories where he can select refrigerators, which shows him all the available subcategories. He clicks on “French Door Refrigerators” and is brought directly to that subcategories product page. The interface clearly indicate his place and gives him opportunities to filter. Drawn to trusted brands and product quality, he chooses one of the top featured products to purchase. Bright yellow calls to action provide cheerful accessibility, while Lowe’s blue indicates place. Daniel adds his item and proceeds to the cart. He can easily start secure checkout without losing opportunities to purchase additional items and can maneuver through the process as a guest, completing his purchase in 8 simple screens and 11 actions.
Using this prototype I conducted an initial round of five usability tests. All of the users were able to complete the given task. 2 out of five of the individuals expressed interest the bottom navigation categories that were brought up to the top nav — wanted to explore the How To guides and what Lowe’s offered for professionals. Users commented on the simplicity of the site and how even though there were options, it was easy to navigate to where they needed to be.
This redesign is a step in the right direction. Moving forward, it serves as a platform for other changes. With navigational options at the top of the page, Lowe’s can test user interest in How To guides and the Lowe’s Pro program. The suggested drop down menu provides click analytics so that departments, categories, and subcategories can continue to improve and become more intuitive. With that structure in place, it’s easier to change content systemically.
But first and foremost comes accessibility. With color blindness being most prevalent in men, testing Lowe’s current call to action color — green, against my suggestion of yellow — in individuals suffering from deuteranomaly is an important (and simple) initial step toward making the site easier to use.
