Getting a tattoo is a personal and involved process that requires thought, consideration, and a fair amount of effort. Getting a tattoo is getting a permanent work of art! This mobile platform focuses on streamlining the process of scheduling a tattoo appointment and provides a centralized space for artists and clients to connect.
My Role
Within our group dynamic, I participated across all stages of the design process including initial research, persona development, ideation, high-fidelity screens and user testing. My main responsibilities were:
Booking a tattoo appointment isn’t just about finding a date and time. Ahead of the big day, customers and artists need to discuss deposit paying, design adjustments, and more.
Every tattoo is unique - which means the process of getting one is too. Our challenge was to make this highly personalized experience approachable and simple for all levels of customers while still ensuring individual needs are met.
Some of our team have been through the tattoo process ourselves or are currently in the midst of trying to schedule one. This firsthand knowledge helped us get started on identifying key needs and areas of improvement.
Scheduling methods vary across both studios and independent artists. We reviewed booking methods currently being used by popular tattoo artists and studios (located in the Toronto and GTA) on Instagram and their websites.
The main areas for opportunity:
We created two personas to ensure our app met both ends of the spectrum - a first-time tattoo client vs. a returning user with plenty of experience. Our app had to have seamless and efficient navigation while being clear and easy to understand.
My sketches focused on:
Careful consideration went into the structure of the booking form. Long forms that ask for a lot of user input can be time and effort consuming. When it comes to tattooing, customers want to express their ideas and artists may need details early on to start designing. It pays off for users to share their thoughts and information from the beginning to help reduce stress and miscommunication later on.
During this stage, we also considered features such as:
Our MVP’s main user flow outlined how a user would select an artist and confirm an appointment.
I created 3 app maps to demonstrate the intended user flow of our MVP. The booking process was divided into 3 stages: Selecting, Booking, and Modifying.
One round of usability testing was conducted with four participants.
Users were asked to:
We used a feedback grid to prioritize updates to our prototype. In the next round of iteration, we focused on:
An app that allows users to view artists, book an appointment, and connect with their tattooer all in one place.
I’m proud of what my team accomplished during the time we had. Keeping a documented process and consistently updating our Trello boards kept us working smoothly and on track. This project was a good reminder to not fall into the mindset of designing what I would personally want and focus on the needs of users based on our research.
Looking back on this project, I think there’s a lot of room for improvement. If I were to go back and continue iterating, I’d focus on these areas:
We were focused on developing the appointment booking flow for this project, but a home page that provides upcoming appointment details and updates works as a better landing page than the Explore screen.
Ensuring consistency in alignment and spacing on every screen would deliver a more polished product.
There are sections of copy, particularly descriptions and instructions, that could be shortened or rewritten for improved clarity.
The information hierarchy on ‘Artist Profile’ and ‘Inbox’ pages could be improved to match current industry best practices.
