SOLVING PROBLEMS WITH DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
SOLVING PROBLEMS WITH DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
SOLVING PROBLEMS WITH DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
Hello, my name is Christian Ignacio and I'm a UX Designer based in Seattle, WA.
Bloodworks Northwest Mobile App
Mobile App Redesign
Overview
I partnered up with the non-profit organization, Bloodworks Northwest, to help redesign their mobile application to boost interactivity on their mobile platform.
We worked closely with the Volunteer Services Program Manager, Naomi Howatt in prototyping an improved and updated version for their application as a final project for course B IMD 481.
Team
1 Project Manager, 2 Visual Designers, and 3 Researchers.
Roles
User Research
Visual Design
Tools
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe XD
Time
Oct 2019 - Dec 2019
Problem
How can we provide Bloodworks Northwest additional tools and resources to support their efforts in connecting with potential donors and improve civic engagement?
A recent study shows that there's drop in people participating in donating blood after specific age ranges due to accessibility and other outside factors. This information has been supplied from the team at Bloodworks to help support our research efforts.
Solution
By enhancing their mobile platform, this allows people to be encouraged to stay connected in donating blood by having a useful companion app for our stakeholder.
Research
During our research, our team performed ethnographic research, field observations, informal interviews, and qualitative media analysis. This helped us get a better understanding how people generally feel about blood donation and their reasonings why they choose to donate.
Over a couple weeks, we visited several Bloodworks blood drives to observe and interact with the donors and volunteers. Through these visits, we had the opportunity to watch the complete donor process of when the patient checks in, the general questionnaire, health screening, when the patient is on the donor chair having their blood drawn and after the post-procedure. When the patient was done, we began to start asking general questions about the whole process.
Much of our field research involved collecting information from pool of donors and volunteers at the locations we visited. We structured our research questions to provide as much qualitative data as they could from the series of answers given.
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We interviewed donors and non-donors the following questions:
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How old are you?
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Have you donated before?
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Do you plan on donating again?
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Why did you donate?
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What is your opinion on the reasons some people don't donate?
Orientation & Ambassador Training
Our group had the opportunity to attend the Bloodworks Northwest orientation and ambassador training held at the University of Washington School of Law. My group was able to analyze the training material that prepares the volunteers in performing effectively at these blood drives. The folder provided a lot training material that included basic donor information and donation facts.
After the session we started discussing on ways this information could be improved to best prepare them for upcoming blood drives.
Personas
Our project featured several well-defined user groups so we were sure to model our personas based on these established groups and the data we collected throughout the project.
Persona 1 was created based on the data collected on donors during our team’s on-site visits. Rather than centering this persona on a regular donor, we modeled it after the many non-donors we surveyed.
Persona 2 was developed through interview-based questions with volunteers. Although many volunteers have other busy schedules in their lifestyle, they always try to fit volunteering at BloodWorks to their schedule.
Mobile Design Process
For the mobile app we wanted to create a platform that provided all of the information that was well-organized and satisfies the needs of our users and our stakeholder. We believe that it was critical for BWNW to have an attractive mobile app because it could interest potential future donors/volunteers in participating in blood drives as well as those who would like to know more about donating. We combined all of the material from what we collected from the ambassador training, the BWNW website and from our qualitative research in an easily accessible way in merging them all into our redesigned app.
For each screen design, we wanted to keep the same branding of the organization by keeping the same color schemes they use for their logos.
Sketches
Low Fidelity Mock Ups
Final Design
We combined essential information from the Bloodworks website and their existing app for users to stay connected throughout the blood donation process. We've made booking appointments easier with a simple user interface and also provided a step-by-step guide for patients to physically get ready for blood drives.
Stay Connected
Check your profile and learn how your donation makes an impact to your community! Be involved and sign up to be a Bloodworks Northwest volunteer and be part of a bigger cause.
Donor Education
Step by step instructions for new donors to prepare for their first blood drive to ensure they have a pleasant experience.
Reflection & Key Takeways
Despite proposing our final mockups, we did not continue working with the Bloodworks team after the course was over. However, I think that this project helped me a lot as a designer and gained a lot of experience in designing for social impact. Being able to partner with Bloodworks for three months was a very fulfilling experience in doing a lot of research and collaboration and it gave me better insight on being able to understand my stakeholders and their targeted users groups. I feel very confident that I've developed better ethnographic research skills that I can apply to future projects.