BloodHub
Challenge
While studying the landscape of blood donation in Pakistan, three major problems were identified faced by the stakeholders; lack of awareness, shortage of regular donors, and regular requirement of blood for patients suffering from ailments like thalassemia.
Process
I followed a 4 step process while designing and developing this application and those are listed as follows
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User Research - This is the primary and secondary research phase in which I take most of the time as compared to the other phases. In this phase, I tend to identify my users and get to know them and the market around where I perform a survey and do some literature review. I interview my users and find out what they want and what are the pain points that they are currently facing with the existing product related to it if any.
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Low-fi Prototype and High-fi Prototype - After thorough brainstorming, I make a mood board and try to list all the features that I am going to include in the system. I also make lots of Low-fi prototypes, user journey mapping during this phase. I then tested my low-fi prototypes with the users to get their feedback and improve the existing designs before moving on to the high-fi prototyping which I do using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe XD.
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Development - In this phase, all the high-fi prototypes along with the functionality are implemented.
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User Testing and Evaluation - The system is now ready to be tested by the users. I create tasks for them to perform and note how much time it took them to complete each task and the points where they were unable to perform any. I also take a pre and post-study questionnaire in which multiple functionalities of the system are rated by the users. This gives me more data to improve my system.
Solution
I defined a set of objectives for any system which aims to improve the current services, based on the findings of the research. These objectives are listed below.
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The platform should be an efficient way for patients to contact donors in case of emergencies.
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The donor should be able to choose and donate at locations that are convenient for them.
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Patients should be able to verify the health safety of a donor.
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Donors should be able to get reviews of organizations and hospitals to make it easier to choose where to donate.
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A patient’s request for blood should not be lost in the mass communication as that decreases empathy.
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Potential donors should be able to find information about the blood donation process to debunk myths.
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A system of rewards or incentives should be implemented to increase the motivation to donate.
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The platform should try to minimize the logistical problems faced by all parties in the process of donating and receiving blood.
These objectives were kept in careful consideration while designing the proposed system. I believe that most, if not all, of these goals are met by the platform designed. The final design caters to individual users as well as organizations including hospitals, blood banks and societies that frequently require blood for their patients. I designed the mobile application with separate feature sets for these two stakeholders and specialized our interface according to their requirements.
Screens
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