InkTank is a mobile application for tattoo enthusiasts and creators, to browse for inspiration and showcase their work, and be able to directly connect with artists or studios in the tattoo community and collaborate.
Project time: June-September 2020;
Client: Student Project at CareerFoundry;
My Role: created entire product design from research to conception, prototype, testing to visualisation, from low fidelity wireframes to polished prototype.
This project was created following a fixed course plan that guided me through an extensive user experience design training and a digital implementation, so I was able to approach the whole process using different methods and learned when they should be deployed. Since this was a solo project I had to also be the project manager.
I followed the design thinking process and it's phases: empathise, define, ideate, prototype, test, and always be prepared to repeat.
EMPHATISE
I enjoyed the challenge of understanding such a rich social topic very much, as I did not know very much about the tattoo world when I started the project.
I dived right in, and started to research both the business environment, doing a competitive analysis, and conducted user surveys and user interviews, with tattoo enthusiasts and professionals to get insights, desires and validate/update my hypothesis on what the app should deliver to the people interested in using such a platform.
I set out to establish who the competition was, looked at different competitors, like Tattoodo and InkHunter, created a competitive analysis, looked at their online presence, and created SWOT analysis, to help me pin point how a new app could be successful on the current market.
With a better understanding of the market, I turned to real tattoo enthusiasts and tattoo professionals to find out how aware they are of existing platforms and how/if they are managing to help them, and what they want and currently struggle with in the process of getting a tattoo.
I found out that they desire most of all to be able to connect with artist or studios without being pressured to instantly book their tattoo.
After speaking to tattoo enthusiasts and analysing the insights gleaned from the interview sessions and survey, the most most important was their need to communicate and collaborate, so I started to define a way to facilitate that.
DEFINE
The initial assumption behind the project was the need to create an app for tattoo enthusiasts to search for inspiration, get advice from experts in the ink community so that they can make informed decisions when they choose who to work with.
This was based on an assumption around the exclusivity of this type of community that got challenged in the research process, and later redefined.
This was based on an assumption around the exclusivity of this type of community that got challenged in the research process, and later redefined.
The survey and the user interviews were very helpful, fun to conduct, getting to speak to people, and glean real insights. With that I went into the empathy phase of my project:
I created 3 user personas, transferring to them the needs and goals of the people I interviewed.
I created 3 user personas, transferring to them the needs and goals of the people I interviewed.
IDEATE
Alongside the insights from users, like concrete facts and world views, which are good qualitative data, and the quantitative data from the survey, I was ready to start sketching user journey maps and user flows through the app.
In turned out that among the underserved were beginner tattoo artist, like user persona Ela, who needed to find studios where she could work and improve her skills and perfect her style. So I started following her on this journey and come up with solutions like studios being opened to quest artist and making possible for artist to join the studio through the app, by creating user journey maps and user flows.
In turned out that among the underserved were beginner tattoo artist, like user persona Ela, who needed to find studios where she could work and improve her skills and perfect her style. So I started following her on this journey and come up with solutions like studios being opened to quest artist and making possible for artist to join the studio through the app, by creating user journey maps and user flows.
PROTOTYPE
Having defined what my app needed to facilitate for tattoo enthusiasts, I started to sketch my ideas, going from Low Fidelity Wireframes (as the ones below) to a High Fidelity Prototype, which I tested with 6 tattoo enthusiasts/creators, both in-person as well as remote.
Transition from low fidelity to high fidelity for one of he sign-up screens and for the studio preview screen.
TEST
Conducting the usability tests was an eye-opening experience, the flows I designed and tested proved to be too complicated, so I redesigned the user flows, and the participants suggestions helped me to simplify and create better ones.
To analyse and sort through the data I used affinity making and then rainbow spreadsheets prioritising and ensure I'm working on the right optimisations for the app.
To analyse and sort through the data I used affinity making and then rainbow spreadsheets prioritising and ensure I'm working on the right optimisations for the app.
The revised prototype addressed the issues that came were hindering usability of the app like: having all search options available, allowing users to explore in multiple ways, the information hierarchy was improved, and relevant details like pricing were added to complete the information overview.
For example the user flow for creating a collection with liked design was improved.
For example the user flow for creating a collection with liked design was improved.
OUTCOME
After empathising with real tattoo enthusiasts, defining their problems, creating solutions, ideating on them and testing them with people, this is the new hypothesis:
Both tattoo enthusiasts and tattoo artists/studios need a platform to communicate, as the inking process is, or can be a co-creation one, so collaboration is enabled through the app.
Currently the main benefits for tattoo enthusiasts and professionals are:
• connect to other members in multiple ways, direct text message, voice and video calls in the app;
• create portfolio, personal collections and share them on the platform;
• a personalised experience through extensive filters for content search and viewing options;
• ability to interact with members, give and receive feedback through reviews and comments;
• options to follow favourite artists and get updates on their travel plans;
• beginner artists can easily join studios as quests.
If you want to see InkTank in action feel free to check out the demo video below:
