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Multi-Device AI Assistant for Personalized Home Improvement Support

Design Timeline

1.5 Months (Sep'23 - Oct'23)

Highlights

Muse Award Gold Winner

Team Members

Audrey Riley, Grace Zhu, and Junyang Hao

My Role

Lead Product Designer: Secondary Research, Research Synthesis, Design System, UX, UI & Prototypes for Mobile and Smart Cart

Project Summary

01

Problem

How might we improve customer retention at Lowe's by facilitating the home improvement process for DIYers?

Solution

Lo, an AI-driven CUI offering end-to-end, personalized support from problem diagnosis to troubleshooting.
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30%

Customer Support Requests

20%

User Retention

Anticipated Impact in Numbers

Context

02

Lowe's is Behind Home Depot in Market Share

A CUI would enable Lowe to provide efficient customer service in the face of staff shortages and give it a competitive advantage. It can use AI to provide personalized support for each user's unique home improvement query.

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Sales of the leading home improvement chains in the United States in 2022. Statista 2024.

Why a CUI?
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Hands-free
experience

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Technical information
simplified

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Personalized assistance

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Accessible for visually impaired users

Research Methods to Derive to User Pain Points
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15+ Web Articles & Papers

About Lowe’s & DIYing culture in the US

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Lowe's App Audit

To identify user journeys & opportunities

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12+ Interviews

With store employees, customers, and DIYers

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Fly On The Wall Observation

To learn about the store layout & customer behavior

Research Findings

03

The Lowe's App Today has Limited Capabilities
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Chat has limited capabilities and opens in a browser.

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How-to guides exist but are text-heavy and difficult to follow.

Lowes' Main Users
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Primary User

Chris, the DIYer 

Chris, a DIY enthusiast with intermediate skills, seeks budget-friendly home improvement solutions.

Troubles: finding optimal solutions, underestimating timelines, and troubleshooting challenges.

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Secondary User

Amy, the Professional

Amy, a highly skilled, experienced interior designer, seeks quality products to match client preferences.

Troubles: product availability, budget constraints, and time-consuming product research.

User Journey & Pain Points of the DIYer

Pre-Store

Identify Problem

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Action Planning

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Pain Points

  • Get a detailed understanding of the problem & how to fix it.

  • Uncertain about the skillset & time the project requires.

Solutions

  • Uses AR & AI to analyze the problem and lists various issues from most to least likely.

  • Provide difficulty level and ETA with a tutorial.

  • Suggest product with quantity/measurements.

In- Store

Store Navigation

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Product Comparison

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Pain Points

  • Exhausting to locate products.

  • Sift through countless products & get help to find a durable, in-budget one with the right specs.

Solutions

  • Directs user through the store according to their shopping list.

  • Compares multiple products, their purposes, and prices to recommend the best one for the user's specific DIY need and explains the choice.

Post- Store

Plan and Kickstart

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Trouble Shooting

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Pain Points

  • Mixing up steps.

  • Figuring out how, where, and why things go wrong when they go wrong.

Solutions

  • Follow-along tutorials for advanced DIY projects with the flexibility to skip steps.

  • AI-driven adaptive tutorial that analyzes the problem to troubleshoot and offers a solution.

Ideation

04

Fluid Storyboarding for Unrestricted Ideation
Fleshing Out Ideas with Impact-Effort Analysis

Testing Insights

05

'Smart Cart' for In-Store Use in Addition to Mobile

Findings from the 'Speed-dating' research with 6 designers prompted us to rethink the in-store CUI modality to enhance the effectiveness of the 'product comparison' feature.

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Voice is avoided in public, making it difficult for elderly users with vision issues to read on phones.

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Users must carry multiple products and find and walk to the kiosk to compare products.

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A smart cart allows integration to mobile and in-spot comparison with a barcode scanner.

Designing the User Interface (UI) 

06

Logo Form - 'The Helper'

We took inspiration from the form of Lowe's staff jacket to create an icon that looks like a person in overalls.

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Animations for the CUI Voice Interaction States

Keeping the Form Consistent yet Expressive to Depict the State

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New Design System with 75+ Components in Under 1 Week

We maintained Lowe’s existing color palette for consistency across channels but adjusted the brightness and saturation for a fresher look. We redesigned the UI elements with softer corners for a more approachable feel while preserving a strong, knowledgeable aesthetic and introduced the consistent use of the 'Inter' font.

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Tone of Voice of the Creator Archetype, Like Our User
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Final Designs

07

Say Hel-Lo to the Future of DIY

Pre-Store

Instant Issue Diagnosis with AR and Computer Vision
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Pre-Store

Personalized Action Plan with Step-by-Step Tutorials and Shopping Lists

In-Store

Avoid Backtracking with Seamless Aisle Navigation based on Your Shopping List
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In-Store

Scan and Compare Products to Find the Perfect Fit for Your Needs

Post-Store

Step-by-Step Audio and Video Guides
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Post-Store

AI-Powered Adaptive Tutorials for Effortless Troubleshooting

Impact

08

Anticipated Impact

30%

In Customer Support Requests.

20%

User Retention

Key Learnings
  • Conversation Design to inform UX: Thinking of UX as a conversation helps us find more organic solutions. 
     

  • Motion Design: designing a form that accommodates various motion states and communicates the state (i.e., speaking/listening/error, etc.)
     

  • Solution-Oriented Mindset: I realized that in a situation of stress, it's key to focus on finding a solution rather than being stuck on the problem.

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