- UX Research
- UX/UI Design
- Visual Design
Breathing New Life Into The First-Ever Augmented Reality Tatoo App
That Layed Foundation For The 10-million Startup
From its conception, the InkHunter app showed exactly what a tattoo would look like a body. It meant to become a virtual fitting room for tattoos. Yet the WOW idea and complex algorithm crushed on poor UI/UX. So, InkHunter hired us to help them turn their rough and unstyled app into a polished product.
Industry
Platforms
Downloads
Honorable mentions in media
Initially, the app provided app illustrated guidelines that were of no help for users.
In the pre-Snapchat era, it was difficult for users to grasp the AR technology and understand how it works so oftentimes they would quit before even trying.
Users appeared to be profoundly disappointed with both the original UX and UI designs. Back in the day, applications like Instagram or VSCO were in trend and InkHunter was nothing like them.
We had a few months of searching for optimal and sophisticated UX & UI decisions. From researching to prototyping. We created several user flows and tested dozens of different interactions on real users to introduce the idea to the big audience.
We chose the best approach that made unfamiliar technology easy to use. It was significantly ahead of the Complexion Reduction trend that everyone was talking about later.
A Piece Of Cake
To ensure a comprehensive, meaningful onboarding, we took a user’s hand and put it through every step in the application. We have created a photo-tutorial, demonstrating the value users were going to unlock.
The User Flow
We created several user flows from scratch and tested them on real users. Ultimately, we have chosen the one that could make the unfamiliar technology easier to understand and use.
We have also tested dozens of different interactions for activating 3d mode and selected a native toggle-alike switcher.
The app asks users to draw a flat-lined emoji-style face, called Square Smile, in the place they are considering getting a tattoo. Then the AR tech uses a phone’s camera to position and overlay the chosen sketch.
The app includes a selection of designs by different tattoo artists to choose from as well as allows its users uploading their own sketches.
To make a tattoo personal, users can compare both the selected sketches and tattoo fonts at first. Once the best option is chosen, they can add a special branded mark onto it.
InkHunter makes it possible to snap a photo of the favorite result for future reference or for sharing with friends. This feature includes a few filters to edit photos.
The idea was to create a visual style associated with tattoos, yet not tattoo salons. We have designed a minimalistic, almost black and white interface with a strong emphasis on content.
& Color Scheme
Since the square smile is the magic element, activating the AR technology, it was only logical to use it in the logo.
We made the logo bold, bright yet minimalistic to make it catchy and memorable. Intense black, white and red colors laid the foundation for the visual style of the entire application.
Black is ink, white is paper, and red is a drop of blood.
To give users a good feeling of what InkHunter is all about, we created a set of custom in-app icons.
We focused on delivering the main concept and helping users understand how the application work when they’re not sure what it is yet.
Since its redesign, in April’16 InkHunter became popular in 40 countries, got the highest retention rate and received massive media coverage in top media, such as TechCrunch, Mashable, Vogue, Cosmopolitan to name a few.
- 10M downloads since its launch in 2016
- 4,6 stars as an average user rating
- More than 1M active users