Xavier Sorribas

Inkwell

Identifying a gap in what current products offer, and building a complete product on my own around the specific needs of a niche market.

  • Product Design
  • UX Strategy
  • AI-assisted Build
  • Modular Architecture
  • End-to-end
  • Front-end

The brief · Designed and built solo

Someone close to me is a tattoo artist. I watched her try to manage a studio with booking tools that were never built for the way a tattoo studio actually works.

So I built a product shaped specifically for tattoo studios and the artists in them, around their real tasks and work patterns, and flexible enough for both studio managers and artists.

Built by
Solodesign and build
Modules
5around one core
AI in the product
Nonebuilt with AI, used without it
Extra costs
Nonefor the studios

My roleEverything, solo

I designed and built Inkwell on my own, end to end: research, product definition, interface design, front end, back end, the release itself and the updates that followed from user feedback. It is used daily by three studios today.

Tools, not a teamSolo build

Working solo was only possible because of AI tools. Claude Code and Claude Design were the main ones, with parallel checks run by agents on ChatGPT. That setup is what let one person deliver something that holds up to daily use.

  • Claude Code
  • Claude Design
  • ChatGPT agents

Outcome

Live since June 2026. Adopted by three Singapore studios, spread by word of mouth, no marketing.

The importance of a good UX approach in the AI era

AI has made it possible to build a product quickly. In my experience, much of what gets built that way sits unused, with no real user adoption.

The reason is rarely the code. It is that nobody understood the people it was meant for, and building fast makes that the easiest thing to skip.

Inkwell started from watching one artist run a studio, not from a feature list.

A working day: the booking, what is still to collect, and the free slots to book. Sample data.

Making a modular product that is easy to update

Inkwell was not built in one shot. It is several modular systems that interact, each solving a different need, working together.

That structure is what makes it fast to upgrade. Feedback can turn into new functionality without touching the core, so the product keeps evolving without every change putting the rest of it at risk.

This was the biggest learning about what makes an AI-built product last.

Modules around a coreIllustrative
COREunchanged HomeCalendarDayMoneyStudio NEWfrom feedback Studio feedback
Inkwell home screen, sample dataInkwell calendar screen, sample dataInkwell day screen, sample dataInkwell money screen, sample dataInkwell studio screen, sample data

Studio screen · Sample data

Feedback becomes a new module, linked to its neighbours. The core stays the same.

Keeping the AI in the build, not in gimmick features

The easy mistake would have been to put AI inside the product because AI was used to build it.

That is building for the hype rather than for the people using it. A studio needs to take bookings, collect deposits and know where its money is. None of that is waiting for an AI model. It is waiting for someone to take it seriously.

In the buildBuilt and maintained with AI
  • Claude Code
  • Claude Design
  • ChatGPT agents
In daily useAI free
  • Take bookings
  • Collect deposits
  • Know where the money is
IllustrativeWhat a studio needs every day, and where the AI actually sits.

So Inkwell is built and maintained with AI, and the daily use of it is AI free. What is in the product came from what users actually asked for, not from chasing hype around AI features.

Adoption

Word of mouth between artists is what spread it, and that is what led more studios to take Inkwell on as their main studio tool.

Its design and architecture made it straightforward to adopt without extra costs, a welcome change from the subscription tools studios are used to.

Guest spots, travel and holidays as real calendar states, not blocked-out days.

The outcome

The product went live in June 2026. It is used not only by the studio it was created for but by others that adopted it since, three Singapore studios in total.

For them it is a tool that adapts to the environment of a studio and the people in it, rather than one they have to work around.

Visit Inkwell

Where the studio’s money is: projected, collected and still to collect. Sample data.

The decisions

Four decisions, across four chapters.

Select a decision to read what I chose and why.

  1. Chapter 01The UX approach

  2. Chapter 02Modular build

  3. Chapter 03AI in the build

  4. Chapter 04Adoption

Decision 1 of 4 · Chapter 01 · The UX approach

Start from watching one artist run a studio

Instead of starting from a feature list

WhyI saw someone close to me missing a tool made for her specific way of working, so her real day became the brief. In my experience, products built quickly with AI often sit unused when nobody understood the people they were for.

Read it in the story ↑

A product I designed, built and shipped alone, with real users, and ready to be taken to more studios.

Contact

Open to design leadership roles.

I’m based in Singapore and can work in Singapore and the EU without sponsorship. Available now.

Email me xsorribas@gmail.com LinkedIn ↗ Download CV ↗
Xavier Sorribas · SingaporeWork · About · Medium