Blood Bank Project
First of all, let us introduce ourselves. We are Eleni Georgiou Amalia St Maria Staikopoulou Marilou Karakosta Nefeli Staikoura Andromache Efstathiou and I, Lambrini Tsiligianni, aka Colourful Minds.
Studying Communication, Media and Culture in Panteion University we had the opportunity because of our Ad & Pr Lab- a part of which is the Creativity Lab- to create this app. We want to thank Betty Tsakarestou and Dr. Stavros Kaperonis for giving us the opportunity to get into design thinking but also learn from the best. Through the semester we had the honor to meet Panagiotis Zaharias, Founder and UX Researcher and Antonis Birmpas ,UX Researcher and Art Director [https://www.theuxprodigy.com/] 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 donors. But we knew that there is a very small percentage of Greeks that donate blood in a 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.
In order to find out if our app and website were going to be useful, we had to do some research regarding to people’s interest and attitude towards blood donation. So, Nefeli Staikoura and Marilou Karakosta did it. In the first place, they discussed with their close ones and asked them whether they would or would not use an app like this, even if they have never been blood donors before, as most of our friends do. Eventually, they were pleased to hear, especially from the older ones — our parents,for example — that they would use this platform to get notified in case they can help someone in need or to let people know about someone who needs blood.
After that, they created an online questionnaire by Google Docs in Greek and forwarded it to some of our Facebook friends aged 18 to 55. They received answers from 52 people. Throught this questionaire, they wanted to know if our idea, would be successful and get feedback from our future users. the main point we needed to keep in mind so as to develop our service was that people are willing to offer and help if they can, as long as they are easily and quickly informed. And that is our vision; make it easy for people to help.
In order to find what motivates our users, which are their concerns and hesitations, but most important what they need and which problem our app solves, we formed a user experience map. Andromache Efstathiou and Maria Staikopoulou did it in a successful way!
At first, we adapted the stages of user experience map to our app idea and we came up with the following stages. At the beginning, we defined two completely different personas, Nikos and Kate, and we wrote down their stories that somehow led them to find out about our app. The next step is about awareness, how our personas discovered Blood Bank. Then , we analyzed the stage of becoming a member and navigating through the app in order to familiarize with it. After this stage, we clarified where Blood Bank is helping the user and why does he use it. In the end our users gave us the feedback we needed.
Amalia St and I put a lot of effort to create our app for Blood Bank because we believe that people nowadays spend a lot more time on their smartphones than their computers. So we wanted to create something that would be much more helpful for any blood donor and still easy to access it.
The process of designing it led us do some research of what other similar apps and websites already exist and how they work. A few similar options popped up but nothing was so specific as we created it. The most important difference between Blood Bank app and the rest of the apps around the web is the fact that through Blood Bank the user has the opportunity to be a donor of blood but when in need can ask the community for help.
And how this works?
So when the user opens the app for the first time after seeing Blood Bank’s logo for a few seconds he/she is being directed to a page asking him/her if they wish to log in or sign in. If you have already an account you simply use your email and password but if it’s your first time using the app you have to sign in through Facebook or via email. In both cases the user has to fill in some basic fields in order to create his/hers personal profile, such as blood type, weight, age etc.
After going through these steps home page is on sight. There the user can see profiles of people that need blood at that time. On top of the page the user can find three buttons. The first one is user’s profile with the basic characteristics of him/her. The second one is favorite’s profiles, where the user “save” profiles of friends, family or other donors and in that way can follow their process on their blood needs. Then the third button is about notifications that occasionally will be sent to the user and will have to do with different matters such as when they can be a donor again etc.
Then on your left side there is the menu of the app. The first option in there is “Plea” where the user asks for blood from the rest of the community. “Previous Donations” is right after and has a list of the user’s blood donations as to whom, when and in which hospital they made it. Then “medical history” follows and it shows users history as far as medicine or illnesses of the past, so the user can keep track on their health and furthermore if they can donate blood for someone else. “Emergency Hospitals” is the next option. While creating this app we thought that having an option of easy access to emergency hospitals would be so helpful for anyone in need. So by clicking there the user can search instantly for emergency hospitals in the chosen area and find directions and telephone numbers to contact. Then last option of the menu is log out. It works as simple as is in any other app and helps the users change profiles in the same device.
Lastly, Blood Bank has its own settings. The users by clicking the settings button has the opportunity to change their password, switch the language from English to Greek and the other way around, ask our team questions for a better app experience and of course read our privacy policy for the app.
Blood Bank’s app is as simple as it could be. We didn’t want our users to try too hard to understand how everything works so getting inspired by other commonly used apps we created something that anyone can use even if they are not so familiar with technology. This is something that UX Prodigy and the Heuristics we have been introduced to made us think about. Studying the Heuristics we understood how important it is for the user to have an as simple as possible user experience journey. Functionality is the key, as our coaches explained to us, in order to an app to be successful and easy to use. Our colors of course had to be white and red in order to match our whole theme and our website. This is also something that we learned through Heuristic Evaluation and the importance of it.
Great help for us to create this app was Magy Kontou that showed us around the proto.io platform and shared ideas, tips and problems that may occur. She helped us learn a few basic functions of the platform and use them in our favor, gave us tips for a better looking app and other sites and sources that we could get material to enrich our idea.
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.
So the two most important things that we learned through this process is how much of important it is to create something functional not only for you, that already have the idea on mind, but also for any other user willing to download and use your app. Especially the fact that we wanted to create an app for not only young people that are already familiar with that kind of stuff but also for older people that are blood donors and want to keep up. The next thing that we learned and we think is very important is how to use the proto.io platform. It is a great way to depict your ideas on screen in a pretty much professional way and has so many features that help the process of pleasant design of an app and for sure we will use it again in the future when we need something similar.
Of course we faced some problems during this whole journey. The most difficult one was the obstacles we had to overcome in order to make our app practical and pleasant to use. As we’ve said UX really made us understand how important this step is so that’s why we put a lot of effort on it. And of course the proto.io platform wasn’t that easy to use at first but practice made us better. The one thing that we didn’t manage to accomplish was at the “Help” option the fact that we couldn’t give our users the opportunity to ask their questions in the app and get their answers right there but we had to redirect them in another site to get the information they wanted.
Lastly we wanted to share some other small tips that we find important, for anyone else that would like to create something similar. Be organized is the key. Organizing your work from the very first idea till the last option on your menu is so important. Only then you can be fully aware of what you are creating and see as many problems as possible. Also in order to help you with the observation of the problems ask people that don’t work with you on how they find your idea or a specific feature in your app. We did the same thing and it was so helpful for the whole team to find strengths and weaknesses in our idea. Last but not least when it comes to designing the app on proto.io, have a few days to discover how this platform works and then draw your ideas on paper. After having everything planned out your work would be much easier.
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!
Betty Tsakarestou Dr. Stavros Kaperonis Amalia St Maria Staikopoulou Eleni Georgiou Nefeli Staikoura Andromache Efstathiou Marilou Karakosta
