Category:
User Experience / UI Design
Client:
Destin Tattoo Studio
🧠 Overview
Task: Design a visually striking and intuitive website for Destin Tattoo Studio that captures its artistic identity while streamlining appointment booking, artist discovery, and client inquiries.
Role: Senior UX/UI Designer responsible for strategy, wireframing, visual design, and user flow optimization—from concept to developer-ready assets.
Key Problems:
Lack of digital presence led to drop-offs in customer interest and inquiries.
Existing tattoo studio websites lacked personality, clear booking flows, and mobile usability.
Users needed reassurance about hygiene, artist credibility, and style specialization.
🔧 Process
1. Research & Discovery
User & Business Research: Began by understanding the unique culture of tattoo clients—seeking inspiration, validating artist credibility, and ease of appointment.
Competitive Audit: Analyzed industry-leading tattoo studio sites—focusing on dark aesthetic layouts with clean galleries, streamlined booking, trust signals, and localized info.
2. Define & Plan
Personas & Scenarios: Developed personas like first-time tattoo enthusiasts and returning clients wanting new custom work.
UX Objectives: Aimed to project artistic authority, showcase diverse portfolio, simplify bookings, and foster confidence through clear navigation and visual branding.
3. Ideation & Sketching
IA Mapping: Structured key pages—home, artist portfolios, style galleries, FAQs, booking/contact.
Wireframe Sketches: Explored layout dominance of visuals vs. text, iterating on hero sections, gallery filters, and call-to-action placements.
4. Wireframing & Mid‑Fi Designs
Hero Focus: Large banner featuring signature tattoo, overlaid with succinct tagline and “Book a Session” button.
Portfolio Preview: Grid layout with hover-over info; filtering by style (e.g., linework, color, realism).
Trust Elements: Integrated artist bios, credentials, client testimonials early in the homepage flow .
5. High‑Fidelity UI Design
Visual Identity: Dark-mode aesthetic with high-contrast typography, minimalistic iconography, and accent colors (e.g., gold or red) for buttons and highlights.
Image Highlighting: High-res tattoo photography with hover zoom and lightbox viewing to fully appreciate details.
6. Mobile‑First & Responsive Approach
Mobile Layout: Hero image resized for small screens with fixed “Book Now” CTA.
Thumb-Friendly Gallery: Stack portfolio items with tap-to-expand functionality.
Sticky Action Bar: Persistent bottom toolbar for quick booking, Instagram, and contact access.
7. Prototype & Usability Testing
Interactive Prototype: Constructed in Figma for flows like portfolio browsing, style filtering, artist details, and contact form usage.
Key Findings: Test users highlighted need for clearer filter labels, quicker access to artist availability, and simplified contact flow—adjustments were made accordingly.
8. Accessibility & Optimization
Contrast & Typography: Ensured text readability with sufficient contrast on dark backgrounds and accessible font sizes.
Performance Tuning: Used compressed images (WebP), lazy-loading for portfolio media, and optimized asset sizes for faster load times—especially critical for mobile users .
9. Final Screens & Features
Landing/Home Page: Combines striking visuals with immediate access to check availability.
Artist Portfolio Pages: Full-screen visuals, in-depth artist descriptions, links to social or Instagram galleries.
Booking Module: Simple form to request sessions, upload reference images, and select preferred artists/time slots.
Contact & Location: Integrated Google Maps embed, studio hours, phone, and follow links.
10. 📈 Launch & Iteration
Design Handoff: Delivered comprehensive specs, UI components, iconography, and responsive behavior guidelines to developers.
Iterative Updates: Post-launch analytics and client feedback informed refinements—like clarifying filter categories, improving tap targets, and adjusting mobile layout elements.
🎯 Summary
The Destin Tattoo Studio website project showcases a complete UX process—from audience and competitive research to refined high-fidelity designs. It masterfully balances a visually rich, moody aesthetic with usability: intuitive browsing, robust trust-building, accessible booking flow, and responsive optimization—tailored for tattoo clients seeking both inspiration and easy conversions.
