MMT
MONTANA MCLAUGHLIN-TOM
UX Designer. Writer. Creator.
Ink Tank
Ink what you love.
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UX Researcher & Designer
Love what you ink.
Ink Tank consolidates a user's journey from research to final appointment with the hopes of minimizing after-tattoo regret.
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My Role
Researcher - Designer - Prototyping - User Testing
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Team
While this was created in a solo project, I would like to thank my tutor Jayd, my mentor Tony and my friends and family for their support.
Problem Statement
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Who
Anyone who is legally eligible to get a tattoo in their area.
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What
A singular, cohesive space where the highly personalized journey of body modifications can be condensed with wide-ranging professional knowledge.
Why
To help minimize the regret that can occur after getting a permanent body-modification.
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This will be measured through user input and collected data throughout the various release dates.
Discovery
Competitor Analysis
The tattoo app market is still relatively new, however, out of the smaller group of available apps Ink Hunter provided the most competition due to its photographic manipulation tools. Below is the full SWOT profile performed during the Competetive Anlyasis.
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Strengths
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Best photographic manipulation tools.
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Strong research components through tattoo inspiration boards.
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Opportunities
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Not easy to navigate.
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Certain photographic manipulation tools could be enhanced.
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Weaknesses
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It is not intuitive to use.
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Thread
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Strong user following.
Another competitor that strongly influenced the creation of Ink Tank is Tattoodo. Tattoodo's strongest features are:
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A connection with certain tattoo parlours, specifically a "book" feature, where users can book sessions through the app with specific artists/parlours.
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An article database where users can research facts, professional opinions, and studies relating to tattoo health, aftercare, etc.
The app did not have any photographic manipulation tools.
Research Goals & Methods
Research Goals
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Find user expectations for a tattoo app.
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Determine what types of research they conduct before getting a tattoo.
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Determine the types of social media they use to research/follow/find tattoo inspiration.
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Research Methods
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Throughout the creation of Ink Tank several methods of research were used, these included:
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In-person user interviews
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Card Sorting
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A/B Preference Tests
** these tests were done at different parts within Ink Tank's creation, however, each phase of testing was consolidated into this section for ease of understanding why these methods were chosen.
In-Person Interviews
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Stage of Use | Discovery + Deliver (first and fourth stage)
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Use | I composed open-ended questions and script with the hopes of targeting each interviewee's thought process on how to navigate Ink Tank's organizational structure. After the interviews I:
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Consolidated my personal notes (on body language, interesting notes, etc.).
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Comments and questions asked during the interview.
and put all of these notes into an Affinity Map to begin re-prioritizing user desires and needs.
Card Sorting
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Stage of Use | Define (second stage)
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Type of Interview | Randomized on-line test.
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Use | After I had created a user flow for Ink Tank, I performed card sorting through an on-line service. Certain functions of Ink Tank, and per-assigned labels (i.e. 'Settings') were put onto cards that user's would organize into the sections they believed belonged together.
A/B Preference Test
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Stage of Use | Deliver (third stage)
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Type of Interview | In-person interviews (second-round)
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Use | Using Usability Hub, I took one feature that had been a recurring suggestion in the second round of in-person interviews and created two types of Log In screens. Whichever layout had the most votes from the testing site, became the beginnings of my Log In screen.
User Persona's
After the first round of in-person interviews, I analyzed the results and my Affinity Map to create two user persona's which would become two main types of Ink Tank's user: people with a tattoo and are looking to get more, or people who want to get their first tattoo. Below is one of the two persona's.
Define
User Journey's & Flows
Once the User Persona's were created, User Journey's and Flows were created to begin re-establishing the overall flow of Ink Tank. The User Flow's were created to emphasize the exact screen-to-screen process the user would need to accomplish a specific task (as seen in the User Persona).
All the examples on this site are for Alice, the above User Persona.
User Journey's were created after the User Flow's, to really flesh out the specifics of each page/each scenario the persona would need to accomplish the specific goal they have/were given.
Site Map
After the User Journey's & Flow's were created and edited, I took the consolidated findings from my interviews, persona's, and re-invented journey's and flows and re-designed my Ink Tank Site Map. Some of the changes made included:
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Linking the Follow, Save, and Profile pages so that once a user followed an artist, their work would show up on the user's individual inspiration board and on the 'Favourites' and 'Following' page.
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Saving photos would be an in-app feature as well as an uploading feature with multiple save options.
Design
Wireframes
During the creation of Ink Tank I used three levels of wireframes: low, mid, and high-fidelity.
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Low Fidelity
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My low-fidelity prototypes were drawn on paper so that I could edit the screen as I drew and thought about the design.
Mid Fidelity
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Using Sketch I began to convert the on-paper vision of Ink Tank into digital screens. It is at this stage that certain aspects that I had been toying with in the low fidelity wireframes were tested on-screen.
High Fidelity
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I used Sketch to begin filling in images of the prototype and Magic Mirror to create life-style prototype images of Ink Tank.
Once I had created real-life screens and prototypes to use, I uploaded the project to InVision where I was able to build the screen-to-screen interaction. I then used QuickTime Player to screen record a click-through of Ink Tank to showcase each feature.
