Lowe’s · Enterprise commerce
Simplifying purchase requests and approvals for business customers, with clearer states and faster decisions.
0101 · Overview
The Lowe’s app brings inventory, order tracking, favorites, and loyalty benefits together for home-improvement customers and professionals.
The Buyer/Admin Purchase Request Flow focused on a specific moment: a buyer exceeds their company’s purchase limit and needs an administrator to review the order. The work connected commerce, loyalty, communications, and app teams around a centralized approvals experience.
02 · Definition
My role
03 · Mapping
Mapping organized the structure, handoffs, and interactions before screens were designed.
I defined the admin and buyer roles, identified their key tasks, mapped touchpoints and emotional moments, and structured the information architecture around the decisions each person needed to make.
Experience goals
Keep buyers informed about the status of every purchase request.
Reduce time and effort with notifications and a centralized approvals list.
Let administrators review and act wherever they are.
Use clear language and focused approve or deny actions.
Help administrators respond quickly to pending requests.
The buyer needs to understand the company limit, submit an order for approval when necessary, and return to complete the purchase once it is approved.
The administrator reviews requests, checks details against organizational policy, and approves or denies spending with confidence.
04 · Sketching
Early sketches helped the team examine entry points, onboarding, request statuses, errors, selection patterns, and the handoff back to the buyer before investing in polished UI.
05 · Prototyping
Prototypes made the complete handoff tangible and gave the team a fast way to validate assumptions.
Two connected experiences let participants embody both roles: the administrator reviewing the request and the buyer returning to finish an approved order.
06 · Testing
Give administrators the ability to accept or reject purchase requests in the app while helping buyers understand what happens before and after approval.
Pro Lowe’s shoppers completed the experience as both Buyer and Administrator through two connected prototypes, thinking aloud throughout the flow.
Participants submitted a request over a $1,000 limit, acted on the administrator notification, filtered and reviewed requests, then returned as the buyer to finish the order.
Research findings
Feedback revealed where notification patterns, terminology, status visibility, and the route back to an approved order needed to work harder.
07 · Final design
The final interactive prototype translated the research into a clearer system of notifications, statuses, filters, request details, and actions.
Iteration focused on helping users always understand whose action was required, what state a request was in, and where to go next.
