Administrators are struggling to quickly and efficiently receive and act on purchase request (PR) approvals because the current system lacks timely notifications and a streamlined approval workflow.

• User: Administrators who manage PR approvals.
• Need: Be notified of new PRs promptly and take immediate action (approve/deny).
• Problem: Current process is not seamless; may be delayed, unclear, or cumbersome.
• Impact: Slower approvals → delays in purchasing → possible business disruptions or frustration for requestors and admins.

Acceptance Criteria

• When a buyer submits a PR, we will send a push notification through the apps for org administrators to let the know that they have Purchase Approvals List screen.
• On the Purchase Approvals List screen, we”ll show all purchase approvals and their current status. The administrator can sort/filter the list screen.
• for purchase request that are pending approval status, we want to display a simple approve or deny CTA
• The focus of this feature will be the administrator view for receiving a notification for a pending PR and enable a way for the administrator to easily approve or deny the PR.

Nice to have

• A simple notification that PR’s are pending on Home that will take user to Purchase Approvals list screen.

Out of Scope

• Ability to explore/Push Ideas
• Can we have a home page component for approving and denying individual PR
• Can we take user directly from push notification into approve/deny flow for individual PR

Throughout this project, I followed a user-centered design approach to understand the needs of both stakeholders and end users. By combining research, analysis, and iterative design, I was able to identify pain points, define user goals, and create effective solutions. Below is a summary of the methods and deliverables I contributed to during the process:

• Stakeholder interviews
• User Interviews
• Persona
• Scenarios
• User journey
• Creating wireframes
• usability testing
• Competitive Analysis
• Low-fidelity Prototypes
• High fidelity prototypes

The mapping step in UX design is essential for organizing and visualizing the structure, flow, and interactions of the user experience. This step includes creating various maps and diagrams that serve as blueprints for the design and development phases. Basically comprehensive understanding of the user's journey, the information architecture, and the flow of interactions.

User Journey Mapping:

• Define User Personas: Start by clearly defining the user personas based on research and data.
• Identify Key Tasks: List the key tasks and goals each persona needs to achieve within the product.
• Visualize the Journey: Create user journey maps that illustrate the steps users take to accomplish these tasks, including their interactions, touchpoints, and pain points.
• Highlight Emotions: Note the user's emotional state at each stage to understand frustrations and satisfaction levels.

Information Architecture (IA) Mapping:

• Content Inventory: Compile a comprehensive list of all the content and features the product will include.
• Organize Hierarchically: Structure the content into a hierarchy, showing the relationships between different sections and pages.
• Sitemap Creation: Develop a sitemap that visually represents the organization of content, navigation paths, and the overall structure of the website or application.

❌ Checkbox Selection Visibility & Action Clarity

• The selection checkbox is small and placed far left, making it easy to overlook.
• There is no clear call to action (CTA) button to confirm approval/denial after selection.
• A sticky "Approve/Deny" button could improve usability.

❌ No Feedback for Actionsn

• If a user selects "Approve" or "Deny," will there be a confirmation popup or inline feedback?
• Adding a visual indicator (e.g., success checkmark or toast notification) would improve user confidence.

❌ Filter Dropdown Placement & Visibility

• The filter dropdown is small and does not stand out. A more prominent placement (near the "pending requests" heading) would improve usability.

❌ Overage Column Lacks Explanation

• The "+$11.78" overage might not be intuitive for all users.
• Consider adding a tooltip or brief label to clarify its meaning (e.g., "Amount exceeding budget").

• 💡 Add Bulk Actions: If multiple requests exist, a "Select All" option would speed up decision-making.
• 💡 Improve Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure the table layout adapts well to mobile screens with collapsible rows.
• 💡 Progress Indicators: A loading spinner or progress bar when approving/denying would provide feedback.
• 💡 Improve Visual Contrast: The gray approval/denial icons are subtle; using bolder colors or buttons could improve accessibility.

With the requirements and research in place, I'll begin defining user steps and the user journey based on the current desktop experience, along with a competitive analysis of other brands.

1. Buyer Flow Insights

• Simplicity = Conversion: Brands with fewer steps and clutter in the purchase request process tend to have higher engagement.
• Clear Progress Indicators: Apps that visually show the steps (e.g., Request → Review → Complete) reduce user anxiety and drop-off.
• Saved Preferences: Leading apps allow buyers to save past purchase requests, autofill forms, or reuse past info — great for repeat actions.
• Personalization: Tailored product suggestions during or after the request process increase cross-selling.

🧑‍💼 2. Admin Flow Insights

• Bulk Actions & Filters: Strong platforms allow admins to approve, reject, or modify multiple requests quickly, often with advanced filters.
• Real-Time Notifications: Instant alerts for new requests or required approvals streamline decision-making.
• Audit Trail / Logs: Apps with transparency features (who approved what, when) provide trust and accountability.
• Role-Based Permissions: Top apps let admins define different roles (e.g., buyer, approver, finance) to streamline workflow.

✅ 3. Purchase Completion Insights

• Confirmation + Next Steps: A clear confirmation screen with “what happens next” messaging improves trust.
• Order Tracking Integration: Competitive brands often link request approval directly to order tracking and delivery status.
• Mobile-Optimized Feedback Loop: After completion, apps may prompt users for feedback or show "you may also like" sections to keep engagement going.
• Support Access: Easy access to customer service (chat/help button) post-purchase builds confidence.

Persona

👩‍💼 Administrator

Sharon Kuriakose Role: Procurement Manager Age: 55 Location: Kansas City, MO Tech Comfort Level: High Tools Used: Desktop + Mobile app

📋 Goals

• Review and approve/deny purchase requests efficiently
• Filter and prioritize pending requests based on urgency
• Maintain a clean, organized purchase trail for auditing

💡Needs

• Easy-to-access dashboard for all pending tasks
• Quick, intuitive filters to sort requests by status
• Detailed view of purchase requests without leaving the list page

😟 Frustrations

• Confused between Shop and Account pages
• Lack of “Select All” visibility makes batch processing harder
• Notifications need to be more consistent and informative

🧠 Insights

• Enjoys structure, clear labeling, and time-saving features
• Works with large volumes of data, values clarity over aesthetics
• Wants to reduce back-and-forth between team members

Persona

🧍‍♂️ Buyer

Carlos Ramirez Role: Field Operations Coordinator Age: 43 Location: Portland, OR Tech Comfort Level: Moderate Tools Used: Mobile app, company-issued tablet

📋 Goals

• Submit purchase requests quickly while on job sites
• Get real-time approval to keep work moving
• Stay organized and avoid delays in procurement

💡Needs

• A simple, fast way to submit purchase requests
• Clear feedback/notifications when requests are approved or denied
• Easy navigation back to incomplete or pending requests

😟 Frustrations

• Navigating from the Shop page to complete requests isn’t always clear
• Unsure if or when approvals have been completed
• Would like more confirmation/status updates

🧠 Insights

• Appreciates clear icons and organized lists
• Expects mobile apps to match the speed and flexibility of working in the field
• Trusts that app will "just work" so he can focus on site work

Now it is time to sketch and draft all the ideas and journey based on the research define to determine entry points, notifications, email and Mobile Journey

After completing qualitative research, competitive analysis, and journey mapping—along with gathering valuable context and feedback from the team —I’m now moving into the prototyping phase. The goal is to bring initial concepts to life, test key assumptions, and validate whether the proposed solutions truly address real user needs.

Testing Plan

Mobile Apps - Pro Purchase Requests

Background / Objectives

Give administrator ability to accept and reject purchase request in apps.

Scope

• Push notification that Purchase Request is needed
• New dashboard for displaying all Purchase Request and their various statuses
• Simple accept & reject ability

Must Have:

• When a buyer submits a Purchase Request, we will send a push notification through the apps for org administrators to let the know that they have Purchase Approvals pending.
• When the admin taps on the push notification, we will navigate to a NEW area of the app to manage Purchase Approvals - Let’s call it Purchase Approvals List screen.
• On the Purchase Approvals - Let’s call it Purchase Approval List screens
• On the Purchase Approval List Screen, we’ll show all purchase approvals and their current status. The administrator can sort/filter the list based on status.

Nice to have:

• A simple notification that Purchase Request

Total of 12 participants—six were tested on the Buyer prototype and six to the Administrator prototype.

Scenario: Imagine you’re working on a big contractor project and you need to bundle order certain supplies. To do this, you log into Lowe’s 4 Pros account and start supplies to your cart, before you know it, the total is above your approved $1,000 purchase limit set by your company’s administrator. Because of this, you need to submit a Purchase Request to your company’s administrator to approve your order.

You are going to walk through this scenario as both the buyer and the administrator. The prototype will change account login view depending on if you’re currently acting as Buyer or Administrator. Please give us your honest feedback and think aloud when completing task and answering questions.

a. Acting as the Buyer

You’ve selected your items and just realized the order exceeds $1,000, so you need to submit a Purchase Request to your company’s Administrator for approval. Verbal Response Prompt:

Before clicking anything, please scroll up and down this screen.

• What are your initial thoughts about what you see on this page?
• What content is surprising to you?
• What content is missing?

Please note that the Estimated Total is $69.04. However, for this scenario, imagine it says $1,069 because we’re pretending the order has exceeded the $1,000 purchase order limit.

• What do you expect will happen after you click “Submit for Approval”?
• Go ahead and submit the Purchase Request for approval.
• How do you feel about what you submitted?
• What step do you think happens next?
• What would be your next step?

Please click “Continue Shopping” and take a moment to remember the next screen. We will return here shortly, but for now, start thinking about the role of the Administrator and move on to the next step.

You’ve just received a push notification asking you to review a pending Purchase Request.

1. Before clicking the notification, what do you suspect will happen once you do?
2. Click the notification and talk through what you’re seeing.
3. You’re now looking at all Purchase Requests. If you wanted to view only the pending ones, how would you go about that?
4. Please filter by Pending Requests if you haven’t already done so. Then proceed to the next step.
5. What are your thoughts on the filter functionality? What, if anything, could be improved in this part of the experience?
6. Go ahead and select the top pending Purchase Request. Then continue to the next step
7. Before approving or denying this Purchase Request, how do you feel about the list view? Did you notice that you could “select all”?
8. Click the carrot icon to see the details of the first pending Purchase Request. Would you ever need to edit a Purchase Request?
9. Please approve this Purchase Request and move on to the next step.
10. How intuitive has the Administrator’s process been so far? What do you like about it? What might you change?
11. Now that you’re on your account page, you want to check the Denied Requests. Please bring those up and think aloud as you do so.
12. Click the account icon. How do you feel about the Administrator menu?
13. Click Purchase Requests one more time, then click Shop at the bottom and look at the notification at the top.
14. How do you feel about this, in conjunction with the push notification? What other content might make the Administrator experience easier?
15. On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate the overall experience of the Purchase Request process as the Administrator? (1 = Poor, 5 = Excellent). Please explain your rating.

Research Findings

Mobile Apps – Pro Purchase Requests

Overall

Overall, it seemed the Buyer participants had a better experience than the Administrator participants. It seemed that navigating the list and utilizing the filter options were mostly intuitive to users. However, further analysis of the app was difficult to assess.

There was a total of 12 participants—six were tested on the Buyer prototype and six were tested on the Administrator prototype. The lack of functionality of the prototype / inability to navigate via the bottom row icons at any point in their journey soured the results of many users.

All participants were asked to rate their experience between 1 (Poor) and 5 (Excellent). The average of the Buyer ratings was 3.67 and the average of the Administrator ratings was 3.5. Combined, the average of the whole test was 3.58.

I also asked where they usually make professional purchase orders in their own careers and received this list: Home Depot (11), Lowe’s (8), Amazon (2), Ace (1), Canby Builders Supply (1), Ebay (1), Harbor Freight (1), Office Depot (1), Target (1), True Value (1) and Wayfair (1).

Buyer Journey

SUBMITTING FOR APPROVAL

ADMINISTRATOR JOURNEY NOTIFICATIONS

Most participants understood that the push notification would take them to an app or a page where the Purchase Requests were listed. Those that saw the in-app notification and appreciated that as well. It seems that many users making purchases for work and/or contractor projects want the process to be as quick and painless as possible.

PURCHASE REQUESTS LIST & FILTER

Finding the Purchase Requests page was relatively easy for most—they would go to Account when they couldn’t find any path on the Shop homepage. There was a decent amount of hang-up on the functionality of the prototype which gave some participants pause. However, once on the Purchase Requests page, users were able to navigate the filter system options with ease. There were two participants who thought going to their inbox on the Shop homepage would take them to Purchase Requests.

APPROVING / DENYING PURCHASE REQUEST

Overall, Approving and Denying seemed pretty straightforward to users. The Select All wasn’t the most visible—one user suggested putting a check box next to it to make it a bit more obvious. A few users seemed a bit thrown off by all of the Purchase Requests being the same item and that lead to one user to suggest that the carrot on each Purchase Request be an expandable button so they didn’t have to leave the page.

ACCOUNT PAGE / SHOP PAGE

There was a bit of confusion between the offerings between the Shop page and the Account page. The notification on the Shop page was appreciated, as well as the inbox notification. Overall, users believe the Account page is where they will find any information they would need in regards to Purchase Orders.

Most users enjoyed the Submit for Approval button and found the information to be pretty easy to understand. One participant noted that they wanted to see the order items on the page. Another participant wondered if there would be a time limit for having the request be approved. Also, a few noted that they assumed they would get a notification once the request was approved.

Navigation

Navigation proved slightly tricky for some users, but this is probably due mostly to the limitations of the prototype. It wasn’t absolutely clear to a few participants where from the Shop page they should go to finish submitting an order that is Awaiting Completion. The Shop page should probably have a Purchase Requests button if there is an Orders & Purchases button. This is a place where consistent notifications throughout the app would be helpful when there is an action waiting for the user.

Purchase Request List & Filter

A couple participants took incredibly long to understand that Filter was where they’d find Purchase Orders of different statuses. The labelling in the top center (i.e. ‘Pending Approval’) could be distracting and detracts from the discoverability of the Filter button. Users also assumed that they would always be brought to the list view by clicking any notification, push or in-app.

Submitting Awaiting Completion

Submitting the order and entering payment info didn’t provide much difficulty once users were already on the list view. However, navigating to that page after exploring other parts of the app was difficult for some. This is where consistent notifications would benefit the user.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Consider adding a Purchase Requests icon on the Shop page next to the Orders & Purchases icon
• Considers adding a check box next to the Select All heading on the list view Go ahead and submit the Purchase Request for approval.
• Consider having equal quality notification settings available for the Buyer as well
• Consider having Approve or Deny buttons on each purchase order in the list view
• Possibly remove the top center labelling on the list view when you filter for all of a certain type of request
• Possibly add an expandable feature on list view where the Purchase Request details are accessible, so the user isn’t taken from the current page