YUKI PAN
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New2Tattoo:
Website shedding light on the tattoo process



OPPORTUNITY

How do people who have never been tattooed make informed decisions about their first tattoo?


For people with no experience, there are not always information sources available for research before getting a tattoo. Traditionally people walk directly into tattoo shops with limited information except to find out on the spot. Combined with a culture of prejudice and misogyny in the industry, it is not uncommon for people getting their first tattoo to end up with unpleasant, negative experiences that are dismissed as the industry norm.
Timeline
8 weeks

Scope
Information architecture, user research, wireframe design


    SOLUTION

    An information site detailing the process of getting a tattoo, key considerations, and ways to find tattoo artists that value inclusivity and artistry hand-in-hand.


    Using education and information to empower new and returning users, reduce anxiety and foster positive experiences by championing transparency and community.

    DISCOVERY

    Informed by real conversations with tattoo artists, clients and models


    I organised and conducted Interviews with tattoo artists at their shops, frequent clients and a tattoo model, recruited through personal networks and approaching shops in person. Additionally, I conducted competitive analysis of tattoo studio sites, interest sites and Google reviews to identify existing gaps.
    key insights
    • Existing sites extensively focus on inventorying styles and subjects, but interviewees did not consider this an accurate reflection of how clients match themselves to artists.
    • Emphasis on relationships between clients and artists
    • Profile ratings are always overwhelmingly positive
    • Price was not a reflection of quality: more important for clients to work with artists to produce outcomes they want within their individual budgets
    • Piercings were a common alternative for 'affordable' body modification 

    These outcomes guided the design of the domain model, highlighting key entities and important relationships that the information architecture sought to showcase.



    OPEN CARD SORT

    Understanding mental models towards tattooing for people with no tattoo experience


    An open card sort was conducted to understand how people organise information related to the process of getting tattoos. Participants were invited to come up with their own categories, with only 1 category 'don't recognise' provided for users to place cards they did not understand.
     design
    • 20 cards containing common terms about tattoos.
    • Fully remote, using UXTweak
    • Only users who have never been tattooed, or only tattooed 1-2 times.


    insights
    • Rare occurrences of 'negative' categories for card items containing potential adverse or undesirable side effects; I used the same approach when designing the site map for placing pages and information about these side effects.
    • People mainly sorted information according to unspecific information, artist-specific information, and studio-specific information categories; this insight into users mental mode showed the highest level of object-oriented UX approach which was reflected in both the domain model as high level entities, informing the rest of the information architecture throughout.







    TREE TEST

    Testing and validing improvements to site structure


    2 tree tests were conducted, both remotely, to test and then validate improvements to site structure. 
     design
    • 10 participants
    • Remote, using UXtweak
    • No restrictions on tattoo experience; general public with interest in tattoos were invited

     outcomes
    • Informed relabelling of categories to be more explicit and informative; 'Introduction to tattoos' was relabelled to 'What is a tattoo?'
    • Site structure revised with greater breadth
    • Shift to an Object-Oriented UX approach; pages in 'Process Guides' categories were rearranged to only contain pages directly related to the actual tattooing process. Guides about 'Designing and placing a tattoo', and 'Choosing an artist or studio' were moved to 'Inspiration' and 'Artists and studios' respectively.
    • Observation of an alternate user flow where tattoo appointment preparations are associated after having chosen a tattoo artist; sitemap changes were made to accommodate this interlink.

    SITE MAPWith a primarily linear hierarchical structure that switches to a database for particularly information-dense pages, the site utilises a relatively broad structure with limited depth. This was an active design choice as the target group of users new to the tattoo domain may not understand to navigate deep structures.




    EVALUATION

    Organising user feedback on foundational layouts


    An efficient and agile evaluation technique allowed for user-feedback on the basic, most important components before greater time on developing a comprehensive prototype. ChatGPT was utilised to generate placeholder text for the wireframes for better believability, compared to lorem ipsom placeholder text. Static wireframes that describe repeated templates were built and evaluated with potential users, with simple tasks on each page to test navigational structure and whether the layouts worked for the goals of the site.

     design
    • 3 participants
    • 10 second impression test for each wireframe
    • Scavenger hunt type tasks to evaluate navigation structure

    insights
    • While the wireframe evaluations showed a largely successful site architecture, there were some superfluous elements such as the vertical menu elements that were not as useful for navigation as previously believed.
    • Some friction was observed when users read the artist profile; participants impulsively scanned other parts of the page when looking for contact information. However, this could potentially be useful friction as it forces users to review information carefully before impulsively looking for booking details, rather than an actual pain point.



    REFLECTION

    Narrow early reseach scope might have limited discovery for informing later stage design decisions

    While the decision to include only 'new' tattoo users in the open card sort was well-grounded at the time of UXR design, given the target audience, actually including familiar tattoo users but documenting this information separately could have been helpful to find a broader set of terms for categorisation, informing the design throughout all stages of design.