Optimizing The Global Search

Web App / SAAS / Enterprise

Approximately 68% of in-store customer inquiries necessitate store associates to perform system searches. However, this most frequently used feature is currently tucked away in a drawer, and it lacks support for multitasking, limiting associates' work efficiency.
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This is my story of redesigning the global search-a feature that empowers associates to work more efficiently in stores.

Background

Approximately 40% of in-store customer inquiries necessitate store associates to perform system searches. However, this most frequently used feature is currently tucked away in a drawer, and it lacks support for multitasking, limiting associates' work efficiency. As the most frequently used feature, the global search needs a redesign.

40%

Lowe’s 3 Million daily customers need assistance from the search feature.

=

1 Million

Customers and associates everyday.

The original state of myredvest system (an all-in-one platform for store associates).

My Role

Lead designer and Researcher.
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I Led the design of the search experience and cross-team collaborations, producing all major deliverables and presenting these to other teams and stakeholders. I Worked alongside another product designer, 1 researcher, 1 PM, and 6 developers.

Timeline

3 months (between January 2023 and March 2023)

Responsibilities

UI/UX, Research

Team

Darshita (PM)

Emily (Product Designer)

Category

B2B

Problem Space

Recapture The Magic in 2 Months.

The original premise was simple: enable the search feature across the entire myredvest system and ensure the process gets saved while associates switch between tabs and pages. Our ambitions were to create a strong foundation that embraced a rapidly evolving business and a more diverse user base for the future.

Current search lives in the drawer and whenever users click on anything on the homepage the drawer will slide in without saving the progress.

Problems - Users

Search is buried in a drawer and it doesn't support multi-tasking. Associates are constantly losing their search progress by having to close out of work that was still in progress. Associates find the search confusing to use and sometime would rather refer back to lowesnet sometimes.

  • Today search is buried in a drawer and it doesn't support multi-tasking.
  • Associates are constantly losing their search progress by having to close out of work that was still in progress.
  • Associates find the search confusing to use and sometime would rather refer back to lowesnet sometimes.
Problems - Business

Associates split time between assisting customers and tasking, so they are constantly multi tasking. The inefficiency of the current design effects associates morale and productivity along with customer satisfaction and store revenue.

Our high level goals were to:
  • Make the search easy and intuitive to use.
  • Provide search accessibility across the myredvest system.
  • Keep the search progress when users multi-task.

search is buried in a drawer and it does not support multi tasking,associates are constantly losing their search progress by having to close out of work that was still in progress. Additionally, store associates split time between assisting customers and tasking, so they are constantly multi tasking. The inefficiency of current design effects associate morale and productivity along with customer satisfaction and store revenue.

Responsibilities

UI/UX, Research

Team

Darshita (PM)

Emily (Product Designer)

Category

B2B

Research

Uncover Associate Search Priorities.

At the outset of the project, we didn’t have a clear mission or specific goals for the search experience. Without pre-existing insights, I partnered with our designer Emily, and researcher Kat to explore how associates use the search feature in stores.

More Relevant Information With Fewer Clicks.

More Relevant Information With Fewer Clicks.

We tested the existing myredvest with 8 participants from various roles and responsibilities in the busiest store in Las Vegas. Our goals were to understand the challenges associates faced when using the search feature, especially while helping customers.

Associates want improved search criteria and filtering and a more accessible search feature that won't lose the progress while associates open other pages or applications.

The more search criteria the better

Associates want improved search criteria and filtering (e.g. filter for product categories, search by store location, search past 180 days). Order search dropdown is not noticeable.

Search usage type is role dependent

Different roles have different needs for search.  They are entering and using search differently.  For example, Contact Center associates require more vast and specialized criteria so they can tackle a host of customer issues.

Associates need to search without losing progress

Associates like having the ability to toggle back and forth between Search and Search results. They can help a customer look at multiple options or compare products more seamlessly without losing their work in progress.  This speeds up interactions and helps them to go more seamlessly.

Associates find the old system to be more effective for multitasking

Even though the current state has been released for 3 years, but store associates still often go back to lowesnet for tasks and search. Most of them mentioned that they were used to the lowesnet and they were able to keep the search process as it stayed in a separate window.

The Discovery.

I was surprised by the issues we found. Even after myredvest has been released for 3 years, associates would still search on our old system over the current one.

"Sometimes when I'm in a rush I would search in lowesnet, just because I know what to expect and I can still refer back to my search results afterward."

What can lowesnet's search offer but myredvest's cannot? So for lowesnet, search results live in a separate tab as it works as a web page. Users can keep these tabs open while opening all other applications on the device without losing progress. Therefore, it would be extremely helpful for the new search design to adapt these possibilities. As we already have the global navigation that contains tabs, it became clearer that include search as one of the tabs would provide an intuitive experience.

Analysis & Planning

Scoping Down The Challenges -Team Alignment.

The biggest challenge I faced throughout this project was balancing moving forward with designs, whilst collaborating with the wider team. As the lookups use separate micro frontends and each lookup/Micro Frontend has its own UI which is built and maintained by a different team who has other agendas. In order for the search to work eventually, we need co-effort from 4 design teams. I organized multiple teams together to decide our timeline and deliverable of MVP-the central view and access point into customer lookup, item lookup, order lookup, and information search.
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Cross-Team Relationship Map

Picking Up the Pieces - Search Queries.

As different teams need to work on different Micro Frontends and utilize different databases that house the information, I unpacked each search query and ensured consistency across all categories.

Customer

● Programs-string
● Recall-integer
● Tax ID-integer
● Military ID-integer
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Products

● Item - string
● Item # -integer
● model #- integer

Order

● phone-integer
● order#-integer
● Vendor PO#-integer
● Invoice #-integer

Information

● Keyword-string

Iteration

Take A Step Back-Giving Associates back their time.

After team alignment, we now can start working on the design. As we don't have technical training for associates it's important to make sure the new design is intuitive and easy to adapt. Knowing associates have been adapted to lowesnet and still search there from time to time, I took a step back and proposed moving the search feature out of the drawer and enabling it at multiple locations across myredvest system, working like the search engine associates are familiar with.

Knowing the homepage is where associates spend the most time and they constantly shift among applications allowed us to do the heavy lifting and select the most optimal search entry-points. The system needed to be smart enough to just work when it could, and humble enough to intervene when it couldn't.
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I designed the new search concept based on these foundations:

  • Accessible across myredvest system.
  • More search criteria with advanced filters.
  • Coexisting with other applications and search results.

Early low-fi wireframes for the new search experience.

More Relevant Information with Fewer Clicks.

Meeting with key stakeholders helped me to validate the direction. Together we identified risks and aligned on expectations and constructed a shared vision for the search feature.

Following this, I started the hi-fi iterations. I decided to take a bottom–up approach and start from the search drop-down, as it will avoid creating friction with stakeholders because the introduction of the design solution only solves problems and removes breakdowns in the existing search feature. I proposed to list search categories based on associates' preferences from our research results and include more detailed prompts for each option as well.

The customer search old (left) new (right)

After the drop-down, I moved on to the bigger picture-navigation flow. I enabled search feature even when users navigate through different pages and also included search and quick links on a new tab.

User Testing

De-risking the new flow.

Once the team had a prototype ready for use, we knew we needed to put it in the hands of our customers. We feared that the new destination first experience would cause issues because it was more friction and a fundamentally different flow. In order to de-risk some of our assumptions, I tested with our floor department (one of the busiest departments) in the stores in San Jose.

To our surprise, not a single participant noticed the different sequencing of the flow or had trouble with it. On each task, we learned what associates expect to see as well as their initial reactions to new screens and search functionality.

    Suggested search criterias had mixed results

    Some associates were confused: "Why not just phone # or just order #"? They don't expect to enter phone number format (dashes) and return order numbers.

    Associates are uncertain about what to expect for document search

    Associates indicated that they were not sure about what it entailed. Is this for IMS? Install documents? Policies? Printables? Or is it just for supervisors?

    Search in a new tab is learnable.

    Opening a new tab for a new search is not immediately intuitive for all associates, but it is highly learnable.

    The advanced search isn't exactly what they expected (filters).

    Associates expected this advanced search button to give them filtering or alternate search options (to search by phone #, order #, or name).

    Refine

    Reduce ambiguity in the search experience.

    A critical part of the new search experience is that associates have a clear understanding of what to expect for each search category. During our user testing session, we observed some friction when associates were making a search, especially after selecting the search type. The challenge shifted from how to give associates the ability to multi-task to how to provide a smoother search input experience. Noticing confusion usually happens when the search type isn't clear, I designed a combo search field-a single component that enables associates to search with a clear and efficient direction.

    Early experiments resulted in a significant increase in clickthrough rate and we concluded that the combo search field helped reduce ambiguity of the search experience.

    Final Design

    Introducing the New
    Global Search.

    Easily accessible Search Feature.

    • Search can be initiated by either scan a barcode, click or keyboard shortcut
    • Once the search is accessed, it will live as a tab on the main navigation bar and can be
    • Search can be accessed through either homepage or a new page

    Combo Search Field

    • The preferred search method automatically becomes active, once a search type is chosen.
    • Each search type has a popover panel that allows the user to select a single search method from a possible list of options.
    • After a new search type selection, the preferred search method popover panel will open automatically or if there is a single search method, it will focus on the input.

    Auto-complete Search

    • When focused on the input, as the user begins typing, the recent searches are replaced by an auto-complete (when applicable)
    • Recent search will be displayed and be individually removed
    • If the input has an advanced lookup it is replaced by the advanced search toggle

    Impact

    Positive results and much more to do.

    The search redesign has boost store associates' work efficiency significantly .This version we call ‘Global Search’ is a jump-off point into the future of what a true search can be. The value of having a quick-access search for our associates is invaluable.

    Reduced search turnover time of associates by 21%.

    An estimated $2M in soft dollar time-and-cost-efficiency savings.

    Increased Clickthrough Rate by 12%.

    Reduced Turnover Time of Associates by

    21%

    Contributed Soft Dollar Savings by

    $2million

    Increased Search Clickthrough Rate by

    12%

    Reflections

    Navigating the Transition from Startup to Corporation.

    Before joining Lowe's, I had always been working in the startup space. Transitioning from a startup to a larger enterprise corporation as a UX designer has been a profound journey, marked not only by the change in scale but also by the leadership opportunities and initiatives that have shaped my professional growth.

    In the startup environment, I often had to take on multiple roles and responsibilities, including design. However, my move to a bigger corporation allowed me to focus more on design leadership. I found myself leading cross-functional teams, guiding junior designers, and spearheading projects. This shift provided me with a broader perspective on design strategy and allowed me to influence the direction of UX within the organization.

    The transition also exposed me to mature design processes, emphasizing documentation and long-term impact. This journey accelerated my professional growth, fostering adaptability, creativity, and discipline. Overall, it made me a more resilient UX designer, prepared to tackle diverse design challenges effectively.

    search is buried in a drawer and it does not support multi tasking,associates are constantly losing their search progress by having to close out of work that was still in progress. Additionally, store associates split time between assisting customers and tasking, so they are constantly multi tasking. The inefficiency of current design effects associate morale and productivity along with customer satisfaction and store revenue.

    Responsibilities

    UI/UX, Research

    Team

    Darshita (PM)

    Emily (Product Designer)

    Category

    B2B

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