The story behind a 10-million startup “InkHunter”
How Artkai helped AR startup gain six million users and become the world’s leading virtual tattoo app.
Since its redesign in April’16 InkHunter app became popular in 40 countries, got highest retention rate and received massive media coverage in top media, such as TechCrunch, Mashable, Vogue, Cosmopolitan to name a few. The anchor of Fox28 even tried on one of tattoo designs via InkHunter being on air. So, what’s so special about it?
It might be one more story about the startup with a delightful idea but crushed dreams because of poor implementation. But it is not. It is a story about mind-boggling success.
Is it a miracle? No way!
The Story
At the beginning of 2016, we met the talented team of the InkHunter startup. The guys had a rather captivating idea and were dreaming of changing the world with it, as well.
Their augmented reality app InkHunter showed exactly what a tattoo would look like before it’s permanently etched on the body. Literally, they created a virtual fitting room for tattoos.
It was already launched in AppStore but had some problems. Intrigued by the idea, users downloaded the app and deleted it after the first try. It appeared the WOW idea and complex algorithm crushed on poor UI/UX.
InkHunter Old Design
So, our team was challenged to do UI/UX modifications and make the point-and-shoot interface work fluidly. We had to make the app beautiful and stunning enough to help users get rid of futile annoying feelings.
Guys, we are on fire!
So, InkHunter hired us to help them turn their rough and unstyled app into a polished product. We had a few months of searching for optimal and sophisticated UX & UI decisions. From researching to prototyping. Sometimes we were disappointed to lose some features. We had hours of brainstorming and ongoing testing of the product inside our team and with end users.
In fine, we did the complete visual style of the app and rethought its user flow from scratch. All in just four months from start to finish.
So, let’s look under the hood, how we had done one of the best work on the market.
“The beta version of the app launched in the fall, but a new and improved release has made InkHunter even better at what it does thanks to a refined recognition algorithm and tweaks to the overall user experience.”
The Daily Dot
The process
We identified a few key things that helped InkHunter achieve the huge success and get its millions.
- Creation of the logo
To stand out in an overcrowded market, we had to find a way to catch people’s attention. So, starting with the logo, we made it bold and bright with minimalistic design. Intense black, white and red colors became the basis of simple logo symphony and the whole app, as well. We took the color scheme from a tattoo nature. Black means ink, white color represents the paper for sketch (the start of every tattoo), and red — a drop of blood. As the square smile was the key element of the app that made the magic happen (it activated the AR technology), we decided to use it in the logo.
Now the user won’t miss the InkHunter app even if his/her smartphone is chock-full of various icons.
- Turning the onboarding into an amazing first date with users
Usually, users don’t like to read any instructions and just press the “Skip it” button. Moreover, the InkHunter app had illustrated guidelines, what intensified users’ confusion.
Illustrated Onboarding that confused the users
The Fix: Create сlear and delightful onboarding
We needed to get all ducks in a row, literally take the hand of a user and guide him through the application step by step. We created photo-tutorial, that helps users at the beginning quickly see the value they are about to unlock.
“In a neat touch, the app asks you to put a little ink on your skin.”
TechCrunch
- Rethinking and clarifying the user flow
The app worked on amazing, but unknown for the most people technology of Augmented Reality. People didn’t use this technology before Snapchat filters (which we were lucky to work with too, but it’s another story).
To see how tattoo designs would appear on the skin in 3D mode, user need to draw a marker. Thus the system can detect the place for tattoo application through the camera. But the users didn’t grasp what is going on at all and just abandoned the experience.
“We believe that design is not a destination, it is a process.”
Artkai team
The Fix: To elaborate the simple user flow for complicated technology
We created several user flows from scratch and tested them on real users. In a result we chose the best one that made unfamiliar technology easy to use and user-friendly. Also, we tested dozens of different interactions for activating 3d mode and stopped on native toggle-alike switcher.
- Giving birth to the crisp and user-friendly design
Not only UX but the original UI-design of the app caused the profound disappointment of the users. They tended to use the delightful and lovely visual applications, like Instagram or VSCO. And InkHunter appeal was far cry from them.
The Fix: To craft top-notch and easy to use interface
We had to create a style associated with tattoos, but not with those dusty tattoo salons. It must be something groovy and trendy that our audience would love to have on its devices. We crafted minimalistic, almost black&white app design with a content-oriented approach. It was significantly ahead of Complexion Reduction trend that everyone was talking about later, at the beginning of summer 2016.
And finally, the prideful “cock-a-doodle-doo!”
In result, InkHunter app has got:
- ~10 M of downloads since its launch in 2016
- 4,6 Stars average user review
- 1 M active users during the last month
Today InkHunter team got investments in New York and continue the work improving their algorithms of augmented reality (AR).
P.S. Don’t tell your mom you have this app!
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