The document discusses concepts for improving the Lowe's Vendor Gateway user experience. It describes testing search functionality, including site-wide search concepts and displaying search results. It also reviews options for the company banner, such as making it collapsible. Finally, it presents a concept for gathering feedback on resolved support tickets using thumbs up/down icons and gets participant feedback. The usability test examines these concepts to determine what enhancements would be most helpful to vendors.

1. Usability Testing
Lowe's Vendor Gateway UX Team
Jaime Brown, Senior UXA
October 2022

2. Learning
Objectives
• Review existing, static display of company banner and
determine if a new functionality is needed for vendors.
• Examine sitewide search concepts and determine if
vendors would benefit.
• We also want to examine the best solution for
displaying search results. Do vendors want to be
able to search, from the homepage, and have
all gateway results return.
• Review possible feedback mechanism for Ticket
Management, specifically a particular concept, where
users are able to click a thumbs up/down display and
provide feedback on recently resolved tickets.

3. Overview
Today we're going to be presenting different concepts for the Lowe’s Vendor
Gateway—the one stop shop for managing your relationship and business with
Lowe’s.
We are really excited to have you collaborate with us as we work to make
vendor-facing applications that will take some of the burden from your
business.
Have you ever been a part of a usability study? A usability study is a study of a
digital product or tool or website where the product is tested when in the
hands of a user. What is being evaluated is the quality of the product not the
user’s knowledge or inherent ability to understand everything about the
product.
There is nothing that you can say today or share that is wrong. We are looking
for your honest feedback about our communication and our product. I did not
design or build this personally….so there is absolutely nothing you could share
that would hurt my feelings.
Preface: We will be recording this session, so that we can capture all your
insights and knowledge. Are you ok with this?
We will have various team members watching us live behind the scenes. They
will not be speaking to you at all until the very end of the session when they
might want to ask you some more specific questions about what you have
shared. If at any time you want to stop, take a break, call it quits for whatever
reason this is your right and we respect that. Do you have any questions for us
before we dive in?

4. Site-wide Search Functionality
Concept Review

5. • I'd like to talk to you about search
functionality. Please review concepts
for site-wide search options.
• Before we compare designs for a possible
search option, I'd like to ask a few
questions about your thoughts on
this potential feature being:
• Current State search – if you needed
to search for something, where
would you start?
• <Now> that you've taken a minute
to review the current design, where
would you go when ?
• What would make the current
design stand out more for you?
Side-wide Search
Functionality

6. • I'd like to talk to you about search
functionality. Please review concepts
for site-wide search options.
• Before we compare designs for a possible
search option, I'd like to ask a few
questions about your thoughts on
this potential feature being:
• Global Region search – if you
needed to search for something,
where would you start?
• <Now> that you've reviewed this
design with a global search, what
are your thoughts about its
placement?
• What would make the current
design stand out more for you?
Side-wide Search
Functionality

7. • As we continue to examine possible site-wide
search functionality, can you look at this concept
and provide your thoughts on the following:
• What, if anything, have you had difficulty
finding on Lowe's Vendor Gateway, across
any application page?
• How often do you jump to using 'search' to
find an answer, instead of clicking or
navigating your way to find an answer to a
question?
• If we added a search feature to the
homepage, would you use this feature daily
or only as a last resort?
• If you navigate away from the homepage
and need to search, would you expect the
search field to be in the same place?
• Would you expect to switch to the
global region, and have the
homepage display, as it does?
• Assuming this is a true global search, where would
you want to see the global search box located?
• What do you think makes for a great search
experience?
Side-wide Search
Functionality

8. Sitewide Search Questions
Questions:
• How do you feel about the overall option of being able to perform a sitewide search from the homepage?
• When you think back on the best experiences and the worst experiences you've had with searching on a website,
and looking for an 'answer', can you tell me what liked the best about your favorite searches? Conversely, what did
you least like about the worst 'search' experiences you've had?
• When you first view Lowe's Vendor Gateway's dashboard homepage, where else would you expect to see a general
site-wide search field?
• Do these concepts make the search bar prominent enough for you to notice? What would make the search bar
stand-out more to you?

9. • Now that we've discussed the possibility
of adding search support in the future, I'd
like to discuss your thoughts on how
'search results' are displayed.
• Please take a moment to review the
concept on your screen and talk to me
about what you're seeing.
• If you entered a single character (letter),
for example B or R, how would you want
those results displayed?
• Would you only want to see results that
START with that letter, or would you
want a full account of all results, across
Lowe's Vendor Gateway, with that letter
or letters included?
• How many results would you want to see
displayed? Would you want to cap the
immediate results to the "top 10" and
have the option to view more results?
Side-wide Search –
Displaying Results

10. Pause HERE for Q&A

11. Sitewide Search Questions
Questions:
• Search Results Ranking
• Having reviewed this concept for how to view the 'search results' that we display, I'd like to rank (Scale of 1-5 where
one is the worst and 5 is the best) each option:
• Rank/Rate – Display any and all results that contain the each of the searched (typed) character or letters:
• Rank/Rate – Display only those results where the FIRST word begins with the searched (typed) character or
letters:
• Rank/Rate – Display only those results where the results contain any of the searched (typed) character or letters:
• When you view these results, how would you prefer to interact with them? As in, if you click into one of those results,
would you expect to be taken directly to that page (still within Lowe's Vendor Gateway), or would you expect that result to
open in a new tab?

12. Sitewide Search Questions
Continued:
• If your search results contained a document or a video link, would you expect that to open on the same page that show the
search results? Or would you expect that to open separately, showing only that document or video?
• If the search results return findings that may take you to a 3rd party application, and clicking that link would take you to a
login screen, would you still want that to be included as a part of the search results?
• Would you only want to see search results that would keep you within Lowe's Vendor Gateway, and open up without
requiring a separate login screen?

13. Company Banner Functionality
Concept Review

14. • Now, we're going to look at the
current view of our Company
Banner.
• As a reminder, it displays not only
the Company Name, but the
Program Type, Home Office VBU
and the button for switching VBU
#s.
• In your current use of the Vendor
Gateway, how often do you interact
with the company banner?
• Does it get in the way of your view
or interactions with any other
applications? Does its static nature
prevent you from doing anything
that you need to do?
• Next, we're going to look at an example
of a "collapsible" banner and take a
moment to discuss how that differs from
the current experience.
Current View of
Company Banner - Static

15. • Now we want to look at a view of a
'collapsed' Company Banner.
• As you look at this view on screen,
can you tell me what you're
thinking as you view this updated
banner state?
• What do you think would happen if you
clicked "show banner"?
• Would you prefer an icon or does
verbiage make a difference in calling your
attention to this option, and
understanding its purpose?
• Do you prefer the ability to hide or
minimize the banner to the current 'fixed'
state?
• If you choose this option for functionality,
would you want the banner to stay
minimized, even after you logged
out? Or would you prefer it return to a
default, displayed state after you logged
out and back in?
Company Banner -
Collapsible

16. • Now we want to look at a view of a
'collapsed' Company Banner, with
a slightly different view.
• As you look at this view on screen,
can you tell me what you're
thinking as you view this updated
banner state?
• Would having the ability to
minimize the company banner,
and still be able to view the
same information that you do
in the current state, be useful?
Company Banner –
Collapsible w/ Info Line

17. • Questions Continued -
• Do you prefer the option to have the
company banner hide from view as
you 'scroll' down a page, and then
re-appear as you scroll back up to
the top?
Company Banner -
Scrolling

18. Comparison View Now that we've discussed these different options,
I'd like to quickly review all 4 designs:
View A (Current Static) View B (Scroll)
View C View D

19. Pause HERE for Q&A

20. Company Banner Functionality Questions
Questions:
• Design Ranking (1-10)
• On a Scale from 1:10, with 1 being the Worst and 10 being the Best, how would you rate the design of:
• View A (Static - Current)
• View B (Scroll)
• View C (Collapsible w/ Single Line of Info)
• View D (Collapsed – No Info)
• Of all 4 options, which functionality (concept) would prefer (Ranking):
• View A (Static - Current)
• View B (Scroll)
• View C (Collapsible w/ Single Line of Info)
• View D (Collapsed – No Info)
• Would you want to see the company banner minimized, and still displaying the company name, program type, active
vendor business unit (vbu) number, or would you expect that section to completely disappear once you minimized it?

21. Ticket Management – Resolved Ticket
Feedback
Concept Review

22. • Before we wrap up today's test, I have
one more design concept I'd like to share
with you.
• For this concept, we're researching the best
method for gathering immediate feedback
once a ticket has been closed or "resolved".
• Please take a minute to review the concept
on your screen and tell me what you think
of this design.
• After you clicked into a ticket that was
"resolved", would you want to see this
feedback modal display?
• Would you want to provide feedback
in this way or is another method for
telling us 'how we did' that you were
prefer?
• Do the thumbs/up thumbs down
provide enough guidance? Would you
still want the ability to tell us how you
feel we did in resolving your ticket?
Ticket Management Feedback
– Resolved Tickets

23. Ticket Management Questions
Questions:
• Design Ranking (1-10)
• Having reviewed this concept for quickly providing feedback on any closed or 'resolved' tickets, on a scale from 1:10,
with 1 being the Worst and 10 being the Best, how would you rate the design?
• If you gave a thumb's down, what would you expect to happen next?
• Would you want the ability to opt 'out' of having this feedback mechanism display whenever a ticket is closed or
resolved?
• Do you feel this an intrusive method of receiving feedback? Are there any other ways of providing direct, immediate
feedback to a ticket's resolution that you would prefer to the concept we've shared?
• What's the worst part of this concept design and what would you like to see changed?
• What is your favorite feature from this concept's design? What is one thing you would keep if we moved forward with
implementing this sometime in the future?

24. Wrap-up Questions

25. Usability Test Wrap-Up
Conclusion:
• That concludes our questions related to the Lowe's Vendor Gateway for the time being.
• Thank you for participating in this research test.

26. End