Duration
15 weeks
Year
2022
My Role
User Research
UX Design
3D Modeling
Rendering
Illustration
Team
Ben Mayo
Xinke (Coco) Wu
Hudson Treu
Jooeun (Lina) Kim
Conveniently bringing blood donation registration and info access to college students
Blood Mini acts to better connect university students with proper blood donation information and registration access in response to decreasing donation rates among younger generations. Placed in high traffic areas such as student centers, this semi-permanent installation serves as a means to make the topic of blood donation a convenient and comfortable process unperturbed by stigmas and misinformation.
Between 2019 and 2021, during the primary effects of Covid, American Red Cross reported a significant decrease in donations from donors between the ages of 16 and 25, while reporting an increase in all those older. This signals both the advancement in age of the regular blood donor supply, and that without the accessibility to mobile drives as seen during Covid, donation rates among these younger generations will suffer. Exposure to and experience with blood donation is incredibly important in establishing the next generation of donors. By developing a device to support the accessibility to and awareness of blood drives, we can help this necessary part of our healthcare infrastructure continue to thrive.
To establish a background for potential interventions in the process of blood donation, we conducted a comprehensive literature review of existing academic research, surveyed 82 university students, and interviewed eight individuals. These included two American Red Cross workers, who were interviewed as I went through the process at a local facility and donated blood for the first time.
What we found is that there are two primary inhibitors keeping university students from donating blood more regularly, or at all in the first place: lack of convenience, and fear. The latter of which is often the primary inhibitor for non-donors, caused by phobia of needles, fear of fainting, and other negative expectations of the donation process. Lack of convenience was regularly attributed to awareness of and accessibility to a blood donation facility. A number of students who had donated had only ever been to mobile drives occurring on campus grounds rather than any brick and mortar donation facilities, and therefore failing to maintain access and awareness of donating beyond their time in a campus setting. Nicely enough, the strongest motivator for people to donate was a desire to do a good thing.
A good solution based on our research findings is one that removes inhibitions from the user, while also motivating them. With a foundation of findings and set of functional and non-functional requirements, our team engaged in a rapid brainstorming session, curating ten ideas to select for further development. From these ten sketches, two were then again developed further in an iterative design process until one idea, the Blood Mini, was selected for final prototype development. For each process, a number of sketches were made, including two storyboards (shown below drawn by Coco Wu), evaluation of the goals addressed, and frustrations overcame for the two final selected ideas.
We created a journey map of how an individual goes through their first experience donating, from the initial moment of advertising impact to the donation itself. Supported by this and design requirements established by our research, we drafted the specific scenarios the kiosk should address to facilitate the best possible outcome for any person interacting with it. First, the kiosk should advertise. This is not necessarily a strong factor in establishing the architecture, but seeing the kiosk (or hearing about it) will be the first interaction anyone has with it. Therefore, it should advertise to attract potential donors.
To inform the architecture, we move onto the other scenarios. Secondly, the kiosk should allow users to learn about the blood donation process, and should be able to see eligibility requirements, the impact of donating, a detailed walkthrough of the process, and blood type content. Finally, the kiosk should allow users to view nearby facilities and upcoming drives, while encouraging them to register for a donation.
Blood Mini contains a variety of informational pages on blood types, the blood donation process, eligibility requirements, and the beneficial impact of donating. With a map containing nearby drive events and donation facilities, users can browse to find facilities and upcoming drives near them, then use the same portal to set up an appointment if necessary. The informational pages serve to ease concerns and answer questions for those weary about the prospect and guide users toward scheduling a donation.
The main interface went through an iterative design process, developing higher fidelities of wireframes along the way until a final, testable prototype was produced for user testing. Both Coco Wu and I shared primary design and prototype responsibilities, working in Figma and Illustrator. I designed, modeled, and rendered the physical kiosk with the interface overlay using Rhino, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.
