Improving Tinter Maintenance Visibility and Efficiency
Over the course of this research initiative, 25 paint associates across 8 Lowe’s locations were interviewed about their day-to-day interactions with ColorPro — a legacy software used to manage paint formulas, operate tinters and process orders. The study focused on a critical subset of functionality known as Maintenance. Its goal: to uncover how the system shaped store operations, where it introduced friction, and what opportunities existed for meaningful redesign.
This research initiative is a part of a greater effort to initialize Lowe’s NextGen Paint operation.
May 2025
Why is this study important and what does it impact?
This study is important because it reveals the practical realities of how Lowe’s paint associates interact with both the physical and digital aspects of maintenance; a critical but often overlooked part of their workflow. Through interviews and observations across multiple stores, the research highlights where ColorPro supports their efforts and where it introduces friction or confusion. It surfaces the dependency between hands-on tasks and software functions, showing the need for tighter integration between the two.
The impact of this study is twofold: it informs ongoing design decisions for improving ColorPro by grounding them in real user behavior, and it brings attention to the day-to-day challenges associates face. Even routine tasks, like purging or checking fill levels, are disrupted by small software inefficiencies. This research provides a foundation for building a more intuitive, dependable, and associate-centered tool.
At its core, maintenance is regarded as the physical task of maintaining the functionality and cleanliness of a tinter to ensure it functions properly throughout the day. Described by some associates as a ritual, it occurs during the opening shift but continues through shifts as orders are processed. Its digital counterpart, ColorPro, allows associates to log and timestamp when certain maintenance processes occur, as well as perform technical operations. The physical and digital operations of these tasks are dependent on one another.
Maintenance, centers around four core actions: Purge, Agitate, Fill, and Status. These functions form the backbone of daily tinter upkeep — each one essential to keeping machines operational and paint orders accurate. Almost all associates recognize this set of tasks as critical to the job. They aren’t begrudgingly skipped over, but rather serve as the natural starting point for opening shop.
The Four Pillars of Maintenance
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Agitate
Agitate refers to the process of mixing colorants within the tinter to prevent separation and maintain consistency. Continuous agitation is critical for keeping the colorant properly blended, ensuring it dispenses evenly with each order. Without it, pigment can settle or dry out inside the machine, leading to clogged lines, inaccurate formulas, or inconsistent color results.
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Fill
Fill refers to the process of refilling depleted colorant canisters within the tinter to ensure accurate dispensing. Each canister holds a specific base color used in custom paint mixes, and low levels can lead to incomplete or incorrect formulas. Associates regularly check fill levels as part of routine maintenance to avoid delays and ensure the machine is ready for consistent use throughout the day.
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Purge
Purge is the process of clearing air and residual colorant from the tinter’s lines and pumps to maintain accurate and consistent dispensing. It is generally recommended as a daily task to ensure optimal machine performance. Air pockets can disrupt the flow of colorant, leading to misdispensed formulas or incomplete fills. ColorPro includes built-in options to perform purging and often prompts associates to complete this maintenance step at the start of the day.
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Status
Status provides a snapshot of the tinter’s overall condition, including alerts for errors, low fill levels, or maintenance needs. It’s the associate’s primary way of diagnosing issues and confirming that the machine is ready for use. Monitoring Status is often the final check before beginning daily operations, ensuring that all systems are functioning as expected.
The role of ColorPro
ColorPro
is an internal software used to manage and execute key tinting operations; including formula lookup, colorant dispensing, and machine maintenance tasks. It serves as the digital interface between the associate and the tinting hardware, enabling functions like logging maintenance activity, retrieving color formulas, and tracking dispensing accuracy. Designed to support both speed and precision, ColorPro plays a central role in fulfilling custom paint orders and keeping daily operations on track. This study focuses on the maintenance module — to understand how well the tool supports the foundational routines that keep tinting machines running.
“Maintenance has always been one of those things I physically do for the machine but hate doing on the computer. It’s an afterthought really.”
- Joe B.
Paint associate, 12 years
Hierarchy of Maintenance
1. Top Navigation Tabs
Fill / Purge / Agitate / (missing Status)
These tabs segment the core maintenance tasks. Selecting Purge brings up the current view.
This structure suggests a compartmentalized approach to maintenance, though it may also lead to context switching if tasks overlap.
2. Left Panel — Colorant Selector
Vertical List of Colorant Chips (with colors and codes 113, 203, 214...)
Users can select a single colorant chip or choose ALL at the top to perform a purge across all lines.
The color-coded bars correspond to canisters in the machine, helping associates match physical components with digital controls.
However, it lacks real-time status indicators (e.g., last purge date or current line condition), which could lead to extra steps or guesswork.
3. Right Panel — Status Visualization
Grid of Colorant Icons with Last Purged Date
Displays the last time each colorant was purged, alongside its color and reference number.
Visually reinforces the state of each container, but offers no sorting/filtering (e.g., “show only overdue”).
All timestamps in the display read the same date — a reflection of how purging is typically performed for all lines at once during opening. Without variation or more detailed tracking, the display offers limited value in identifying missed or inconsistent maintenance.
4. Central Action — Purge Action
Primary Button “Purge (F3)”
Primary button after a colorant is selected.
Simple and clear, but lacks confirmation feedback or selection state.
5. Bottom Buttons — System Controls
Reset Timer (F5): Clears the internal clock/purge interval tracking for a selected line.
Open/Close Nozzle (F7): Manual control over the tinter hardware, used for troubleshooting and priming.
Done (Esc): Closes the maintenance module.
Understanding Actions
1. “ALL” as the Default Action
The “ALL” button is positioned at the top of the colorant list and consistently serves as the default choice. All 25 associates reported using it as their starting action, and 12 explicitly stated they had never encountered a situation where a single line needed to be purged more than another. As a result, selecting individual colorants was considered unnecessary — “ALL” covered every need with a single action. This became a habitual, unchallenged part of opening routine.
2. Linear Visual Hierarchy: ALL → PURGE
The interface encourages a two-step action: select ALL, then trigger Purge. The central placement of the Purge button reinforces this flow. Notably, 21 out of 25 associates (84%) reported using keyboard shortcuts — primarily F3 — rather than clicking with the mouse, further streamlining the action and reducing attention paid to the UI itself. This behavior shows how spatial layout and shortcut affordances together shape quick, repeatable interactions that bypass much of the interface altogether.
Redundancy in Hierarchy
ColorPro’s interface duplicates colorant visualization: once in the vertical button list, and again in the adjacent 3D tank diagram. While seemingly helpful, 23 of 25 associates reported ignoring the 3D visualization entirely, relying instead on the labeled list and shortcut keys. This redundancy, without added function or interactivity, diluted visual focus and did not align with user behavior or needs.
Irrelevance of Supplemental Information
Despite the inclusion of individual colorant purge timestamps, all 25 associates (100%) stated they did not use this information. Most cited two reasons: the timestamps lacked precision (no time of day was shown), and they were irrelevant to a workflow that required purging multiple times per day regardless. Even though the data could theoretically flag a missed purge, the lack of trust in its detail and the daily maintenance routine made it functionally obsolete.
Fixed Layout Limits Context Awareness
Colorant positions in the 3D stack are fixed by physical machine order, not usage or urgency. This made it difficult to assess at a glance which lines were low or required attention. 18 associates reported relying on manual fill logs or physical checks instead of trusting the interface. The spatial layout, while visually novel, did not support their actual decision-making.
Conflicting Emphasis on Quantity Display
Quantities appear both beside each colorant name and again in the 3D diagram, with different visual treatments (numeric vs. volume bars). This created information noise. 17 associates expressed confusion over which number to prioritize. Without a unified or interactive display, the system presented more data than it clarified.
“I just don’t want to have to think about maintenance everyday, I want it to be something I interact with as little and as fast as possible.” - Janet M.
Paint associate, 8 years
Maintenance Redesign
This new maintenance dashboard replaces the legacy ColorPro interface, consolidating all key tinter-related information into a single view.
Right Drawer
The Refill section displays each colorant’s remaining percentage alongside its most recent maintenance activity, including last filled and last purged timestamps. This structure places the most time-sensitive data, the fill percentage, at the highest visual priority. From an information hierarchy standpoint, this ensures that associates can scan the list quickly and identify low levels without needing to read through detailed text.
This layout directly addresses feedback from associates who reported that, in ColorPro, identifying low levels required reading through long, text-based lists and manually comparing values. That process slowed down decision-making, especially during peak hours. By introducing clearly visible percentages and urgency-based color coding (red for critical, yellow for moderate, green for sufficient), the dashboard allows associates to instantly see which colorants require attention. This is particularly important because running out of a critical colorant can delay multiple customer orders, while refilling too early can waste time and resources. The addition of last filled and last purged timestamps further supports efficiency by helping associates confirm whether a colorant has been recently serviced, reducing unnecessary refill actions and ensuring maintenance time is spent on the highest-priority needs.
Center Content
Trends
Trends offers a concise overview of recent tinter performance, highlighting total tint dispensed and mis-tint volumes, along with percentage changes from the previous period. This directly addresses associate concerns from ColorPro, where output data was scattered across multiple reports and required manual calculation. Associates shared that this lack of visibility slowed down decision making and made it harder to monitor performance. The new design allows associates to quickly assess operations and detect volume changes. This supports early identification of issues, such as increases in mis-tint rates, and helps teams plan refills and maintenance more efficiently.
Activities
The Activities list presents a chronological record of recent tinter actions, such as purges, refills, and tinting operations. Associates previously reported that in ColorPro, this information was split across different screens, often without a clear timestamp. This made it difficult to troubleshoot when something went wrong—especially in locations where multiple users shared the same machine. The unified activity log now shows exactly what was done and when, giving everyone the same information and reducing the chance of repeated or missed tasks. Associates emphasized the need for this visibility to avoid duplicated work and to keep maintenance consistent.
Contact
The Contact section ensures that associates can reach the right support when in-store resolution is not possible. In ColorPro, many teams noted that contact details were buried in manuals or known only to specific individuals. During urgent situations, this slowed down the escalation process and added unnecessary stress. Associates specifically asked for faster access to ITSD resources. By placing support information in a consistent and visible area, the new dashboard reduces delays and gives all team members equal access to help when needed.
Alerts (Status)
The Alerts panel organizes system notifications into three categories: Critical, Info, and General. Each alert includes a clear description and a recommended action. Associates said that in the previous system, many alerts appeared as vague error codes with no context, requiring them to pause and look up meanings before responding. This created frustration and wasted time. With this redesign, urgent issues are easier to recognize and act on. Coupled with the activity log and contact section, the alerts panel gives associates the context, history, and escalation path they need to resolve problems quickly and confidently.
Together, these features create a streamlined, structured flow of information. This layout directly reflects associate feedback about the inefficiencies and confusion they experienced with ColorPro. By consolidating key details into one interface and making them easier to access and understand, the dashboard reduces operational delays and enables faster, more accurate maintenance and production decisions.