BloodBank .GR
or the development of our website
As developpers of Blood Bank we need to introduce ourselves. We are 7 girls, Lambrini Tsiligianni Andromache Efstathiou Amalia St Nefeli Staikoura Maria Staikopoulou Marilou Karakosta and me, Eleni Georgiou, aka COLOURFUL MINDS.
We are university students at Panteion University, at the Communication,Media and Culture Studies Department. We are all in the Ad & Pr Lab, a part of which is the Digital Creativity Lab, with Betty Tsakarestou and Dr. Stavros Kaperonis.
During our sessions, we had the honour of hosting the UX Prodigy [https://www.theuxprodigy.com/], Panagiotis Zaharias, Founder and UX Researcher and Antonis Birmpas ,UX Researcher and Art Director) and Magy Kontou Co-Founder, Lead UI/UX Designer at SimpleApps [https://simpleapps.gr/en/].
The UX Prodigy intoduced us to the Heuristics, an evaluation system that shows when an application or website is properly created in order for the user to have an easy and helpful experience using them [https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/] . On the other hand, Magy Kontou explained how an app can be easy and useful for the user, as well as how to create our own apps using Proto.io.
So, in order to start getting involved in these extremely useful insights, we were instructed that we would have to create our own application and website for our own ideas. After a few brainstorming sessions, we finally had our concept. And it was very relevant to the greek reality. Blood donations in Greece is a matter that is, if not at all, not communicated well enough. [You can read more at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2440532/ ] Some members of our team were donours. But we knew that there is a very small percentage of Greeks that donate blood in an standard basis and not only when a close relative or friend needs it. We also found out that there were no similar applications about blood donation in Greece except for the official one, by https://blooddonorregistry.gr/ , which had stayed in the very basics and did not look very formal.
You can read our original idea here; https://medium.com/@mariloukarakosta/we-are-colourful-minds-and-during-our-sessions-of-our-ad-n-pr-lab-digital-creativity-apps-c2b2f3e7d7a5
So, at first we started developping the application, and then the website.
OUR WEBSITE LINK, using Tilda Publishing.
For the website, we took in consideration the Heuristics. We used the same fonts, colours and icons, in order the user to know that he is using the same service, as well as the same language to prevent users from confusion.(Consistency and standards) We kept as simple as possible, without the need of a lot of scrolling down to find what one needs. The menu is clear and for whatever happens, the user gets notified via notifications. And if one needs any help, our team provides him with answer as soon as possible.(Visibility of system status, Help and documentation). The user can easily go to the homepage by clicking the logo , which is visible throughout the pages. The choices they have are simple, and are put in a way that the user can find what he needs in a less than two seconds. We decided on using a minimalistic design, without many colors or images, because we also wanted to be relevant to the subject of our project. We used a combination of dark red and white, and Red is the colour of blood, so it is associated with emergency, energy, danger, strength, power, determination as well as love. Red is a very emotionally intense color, making it perfect for a website and application for the humanitarian cause of blood donation. (Aesthetic and minimalist design) There is also the choice of the English version for the non-greek-speakers.
We would like to thank Magy Kontou and the UX Prodigy , for showing us how to create user-centered platform, that makes one want to stay more and learn more about it. We believe the Heuristics evalution is a tool we are going to use in the future, and a way to be able to visit websites and use applications and have a critical eye on them. Last but not least, as we are all applications’ users, being able to know what it takes to create one, and especially a GOOD one, is an asset that we are going to use, whether we are users or developpers. We also want to thank Betty Tsakarestou and Dr. Stavros Kaperonis for giving us the oportunity to learn from the best.
And don’t forget, donation saves lives!
