When planning and designing the brand for my website and final project, I knew that there had to be a unique selling point, a feature that will encourage people to choose this tattoo studio instead of another high-street shop. To do this, I started to think of who my target audience is and eventually concluded that it would be younger people just getting into tattoos and more so young women. After I had decided this I brainstorm reasons why someone in this audience would not want to get a tattoo, or indeed why someone would not choose a specific shop. Two main reasons came to mind, and I will discuss them in this blog post.
One of the main reasons discouraging people from getting tattoos is most obviously the fact that it is permanent art, and if you don’t like it there is no cheap and easy way of getting it removed. Because of this I have come up with the idea of using Augmented reality to show how your tattoo will look before you have it done. In this feature the client will upload or take an image of where they want the tattoo and then place the artists design they want on to the area. This will be the best and most innovative feature of the website, not only does it allow the customer to try on before they make any commitments, it also allows the customer to have a better form of communication with their artist, especially in terms of size, colour and placement.
The other main reason that I could think of is the fear of going into the shop and getting it done, you may worry you’ll be judged or feel uncomfortable or not be able to fully communicate what you want. I believe this idea probably stems from the masculine and tough culture surrounding tattoo shops and being tattooed. For a while ‘tattooing has been a male-dominated industry’ and ‘tattoo artists are associated with a toughness which traditionally doesn’t align with societal expectations of femininity’ (Few, 2019) I believe that the augmented reality feature will also help this concern as it allows the client to experiment with their tattoos on their own. Because of this tattoo shop culture, I also really wanted to emphasise in the website and perhaps the fun cartoon design of the logo that we are not a standard high-street tattoo shop, we are a client- focused, female owned, safe, inclusive and private.
Of course another concern for many is the pain of being tattooed and because of this, after the client uploads their image into the augmented reality feature and tries on the tattoo design, they will be prompted to select on an anatomical figure where they wish to be tattooed, they will then be able to see a pain scale, and whether the studio recommends that placements for beginners or not.
Augmented reality by definition featured in the Oxford Learners Dictionary is ‘a technology that combines computer-generated images on a screen with the real object or scene that you are looking at’ so, In terms of the augmented reality feature itself and how it will work – I will now discuss how I want it to look, how it would work as a feature and where it will appear on the website. In figure 1 below, you can clearly see the menu at the top. This menu will appear on every page you click on and on this menu there is a ‘Not sure?’ button featured, you can also see in figure 1 how I wish for the page itself to look, the main feature being that you are prompted to upload a photo. Once you have uploaded a photo you will select from the artists available designs and the augmented reality will paste the design on to your body, from there you can size and make edits as needed. Once the client has seen and received their design, they will be asked whether they want to use the ‘AR’ to create a booking, in which they will then be redirected to the ‘Bookings’ page where they can fill out a contact form to book in.
Overall I feel like this feature will be extremely unique and will work extremely well in terms of building client trust and the studios reputation. It is also in my opinion an innovative feature as it further bridges the gap between the digital design world and the traditional practise of tattooing.
REFERENCES
Few, A. (2019) Women Breaking Down Barriers In Today’s Male Dominated Occupations. Available online: https://www.vibe105to.com/full-disclosure/women-breaking-down-barriers-in-todays-male-dominated-occupations [Accessed 12/05/2023]