Tattoo App Case Study
Problem
Though it may only take a few hours to receive a tattoo, the dreaming and planning beforehand can take much longer. How can tattoo enthusiasts spend less time searching and more time connecting with compatible tattoo artists that align with their personal aesthetic?
Goal
INKTANK will deliver a frictionless exploration experience for users to collect design inspiration in one place and connect with compatible tattoo artists in their area.
Competitive Analysis
I began my research by conducting a thorough analysis of two leading competitor apps, Tattoodo and Inkhunter. By conducting a SWOT analysis, I identified opportunities for INKTANK to become a leading digital tool in the tattoo industry by considering the core features of my competitors.
Understanding the User
To understand my target audience and gather data about their behaviors and expectations, I conducted three user interviews with the following research goals:
- How do my potential users utilize digital tools and social media?
- What types of features do my users enjoy and dislike about mobile apps?
- What are my users' expectations and/or real-life experiences finding compatible tattoo artists and picking tattoo designs?
Following the interviews, I synthesized the data that I collected by organizing common information into an affinity map. This process provided some clues to INKTANK's potential users' goals, behaviors, and expectations. Overall, the data collected offered great insight into features that attract users and features that detract from the experience of using a mobile app. Affinity mapping helped me to shape user personas in the next step in the research phase.
User Interviews: Key Insights
- Users want to know the proximity of the tattoo artist(s) they are considering hiring
- Users agree that searching for a tattoo is a personal decision and customization of the design exploration process is critical
- Users want to be able to read other users' reviews of their experiences with tattoo artists on the app
User Personas
Two unique personas helped define which journeys users would take to navigate from feature to feature. User journeys and flow maps laid the foundation for the most important INKTANK functions: EXPLORE, COLLECT, and CONNECT.
User Persona Diagram for INKTANK App | Luis, Tattoo Artist, 30 Years Old
User Persona Diagram for INKTANK App | Tamra, Professor, 51 Years Old
User Flows
In order to better understand how my users might approach the tasks they need to complete in the INKTANK app, I created several user flows to visualize the patterns.
Card Sort & Site Map
I facilitated a card sort in order to gather information about how my users interpret several content topics and categories related to the INKTANK app. By noticing how users intuitively group words and phrases, I gained a better understanding of how to organize INKTANK's sitemap so that my users can most effectively use the tool.
This card sort was completed digitally using Optimalsort with a total of five participants. There were 25 cards total and participants engaged in an open card sort, encouraged to define their own content categories.
WIREFRAMING
Now that my sitemap and user flows were in place, I translated my sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes in Adobe XD. I started by detailing the user flows of the Onboarding, Explore/Search, and Message/Booking features of the app. The card sort in the previous step of my research informed the user flows of my first prototypes of the app, and also helped me hone in on the ideas that resonated best with my potential users.
User Testing
I linked my wireframes into a clickable prototype and conducted six usability tests with a diverse demographic of test participants in order to test the function and learnability of the app. I wanted to find out the strengths and weaknesses of my prototype.
User Testing: Key Insights
Learnability of the app was strong, and participants provided insights into their expectations of the app based on their own social media and app usage habits. Users asked that I consider the following for my design:
- Artwork categories should be searchable and discoverable by style
- Hashtags are a useful tool for linking similar tattoo design ideas and artist names
- Artist portfolios should have the option for user to leave reviews
From here, I re-iterated my wireframes to fix the bugs that were uncovered in the initial round of testing, and then I moved onto creating the app's design language.
Summary
Though it may only take a few hours to receive a tattoo, the dreaming and planning beforehand can take much longer. Through extensive research and user testing, INKTANK is now poised to deliver a frictionless exploration experience for users to collect design inspiration in one place and connect with compatible tattoo artists in their area.
