Case Study (InkTank Tattoo Prototype)

Overview

• InkTank is a project that was developed by Asif Kamal with the help of his mentor, James Pikover and Tutor Kim Atkinson. The goal was to create an app that allows people to rate tattoo artists, find reputable parlors nearby, and see previous tattoos done on other people by different artists.

Context and Challenge

• InkTank aims to capitalize on the untapped digital tattoo guide market. It also hopes to become the main avenue through which people find tattoo places. The problem was there was nothing on the market that categorized tattoo places and artists into a neat platform.

Process and Insight

• I analyzed the usability testing results and comments from interviews to create a tattoo app that would become the place to go for tattoo parlor research. I used Balsamiq to produce a low-fidelity prototype and had people test it out to gather new data and improve the design using paper sketches and rapid prototyping because I wanted to know if I was going in the right direction. Surveys, interviews, usability testing, card sorting, A/B testing and preference testing were all used to hone into what design would best satisfy the users. This was all in the service of User-Centered Design. When reading through articles about typography, color and Gestalt Psychology I tailored the designs to be attractive, because I learned that people’s initial reaction is very important. Using Sketch, a clickable prototype was created on InVision, through several wireframe designs. The wireframes gave me time to revisit pain points quickly after testing, and since I was on a schedule this was very important.

Solution

For more details:

Responsive Web Design

Professional Portfolio

For navigation in both examples I had the important pages listed together either in the top right or on the bottom. Especially in my portfolio website I had navigation to my previous projects simple. Within my project page I have a link that takes you to my Skills and Processes page. I sparked out information so it was easier to digest.

For content strategy I aim to let the viewer see just enough to be interested, and have links to other websites where my work is posted or places where you can find out more about my educational and work history for people who want to see more. I have worked on my one project called InkTank for almost a year and thus have much data to be shared but did not want to overwhelm anyone who is just casually looking through.

Responsively, I learned a lot in my Front-End Design class such as integrating animations, hover text, etc to make a website more fun and engaging. I also learned the ins and outs of organizing content across a webpage and what coding it takes to do that. This will be helpful in the future when I need to create a portfolio website (or any website) from scratch.

Results

(project not launched yet)