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Supporting our teams for Lifeblood.
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Blood is in high demand in Australia. However, some eligible donors do not come back to donate again, even though this is well-known.
Our team of three worked on a two-week project to address this issue by creating more blood donation opportunities - by improving Lifeblood's digital experience.
LifeBlood is the blood donation arm of the Australian Red Cross and they currently require more donations to help those in need.
The demand for blood far outweighs the supply leaving many lives at potential risk.
From the brief provided, we were able to identify three main goals that will go a long way towards solving this issue.
During contextual inquiries, we found the clinic to be inviting and the process of donation smooth — most people we spoke to had no ill feelings towards the physical process of donating blood.
The reception on unexpectedly busy day mentioned they actually had an uptake of donors during COVID. Confirming that it wasn’t as much of a culprit in the decline of donors.
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In our comparison of other local charities, we discovered a trend for transparency — they made their donors and the general public feel involved.
When we looked at global collection agencies we found a continuing trend for supply transparency and rewarding donors, whether monetary or through recognition.
After a thorough competitive and comparative analysis - LifeBlood’s existing products were not per market standards.
App rating
4.0 -Wateen(KSA)
3.5 -NZblood(NZ)
4.8 -GiveBlood(CA)
4.5 -BloodDonor(USA)
3.3- Lifeblood(AU)
There is an existing team section where users will be able to search for a team they support and join.
There is almost zero engagement and benefits to be in a team other than to contribute your donation tally to the team.
We interviewed a diverse group of people — frequent blood donors, one time donors, non-blood donors, and charitable people who donate anything such as clothes, furniture and time.
The intent of these interviews was to find trends on donation behaviours.
Between the user interviews and the observations from the clinic, we began seeing trends in how, when and why people donate.
These trends can be summarised by the following quotes.
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From our research, we found three types of blood donors;
The model donor who prioritises blood donations over everything else,
The apathetic donor who has other priorities
And the influential donor who will only donate who wants to donate but still needs some motivation.
The focus for this case study is on the influential donor, “Emily”.
She is interested in becoming a blood donor and is motivated to join the conversation and contribute to the greater good.
A general observation of the emotional graph above shows that Emily is undergoing a mixed emotional ride in all stages of the scenario, in which many of them are due to her being doubtful and fearful about the process.
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It is on the day of the booking where the lonesome experience of donating affects the mood and causes potential cancellations.
This is the barrier which prevents repeat and recurring blood donations.
We can sum up Emily’s problem statement in one sentence.
The title above describes the product's idea.
It is a teams feature that allows users to invite others in their donation, prompting you to make a supportive donating experience.
We wanted to use gamification elements to help users support others and to inspire collaborate, share and interact.
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The teams feature needed to do more than just allowing users to contribute their donation count to the team's tally.
It should include an array of features that support first time users and individuals.
And in turn allows users to feel more engaged with the product and others as a team.
The feature is divided into two parts — the onboarding process where the
product is enabled, and the booking flow where the user is first supported
by the teams feature.
We created a user flow to identify the process and key decision points,
which would help shape our first prototype.
Progressive testing provided us with feedback on what was working and what wasn’t working.
Starting with a low fidelity prototype and gradually adding details and conducting usability tests, we were able to efficiently progressed the design and product.
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The product is intended to be an overhaul feature on the existing app.
As mentioned earlier, the processes and flow of the existing app was not per market standards.
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The product is either enabled during the onboarding process when the app is first installed,
or (if the app has already been installed) via a single time pop-up on the home screen.
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For unnecessary onboarding the app will allow users to go on the team feature by clicking on the profile menu.
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Emily can easily invite, create and search for what she needs.
Emily will see the members in her team and be part of a community, who can support her blood donating journey and motivate her to donate more frequently.
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On the teams page they can see all the info collected during the day in a quick and easy scan.
LifeBlood's ultimate objective is to enhance the number of donors by 45%, as indicated in the brief. To put this into perspective, this means elevating the count from 502,019 donors, which was stated in the annual report of 2020-2021, to 727,927. However, solely relying on the product may not be adequate to attain these objectives.
Nevertheless, it can be regarded as the initial stride towards a lasting resolution. By allocating additional resources, this product can attain greater potential, particularly when employed in conjunction with other impactful ideas we have in mind.
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More testing
Testing early and frequently can provide valuable insights and help improve the quality of a project. In order to enhance future projects, I would prioritise early and regular testing to gather insightful feedback and refine the project.
Going off track
In a design sprint, time is limited, so it's best to avoid getting bogged down in excessive research. It's important to have a general understanding of the available research, but don't delve too deeply unless it's directly relevant to the product.
