The UX of Blood Donation is broken
You have seen it in SMSes, in Whatsapp forwards, in Emails, in Twitter, in Facebook. Sometimes you have felt you should help, sometimes you were confused whether it’s still needed, sometimes you were resigned and ignored it. Yes, it’s the call/ SMS/ updates for blood donation that keep coming up once in a while in your life. Following are a few quick thoughts and views on the experience of blood donation.
I have done blood based donation twice in the last year. One was blood donation; the other was blood platelet donation.
First happened in SAP Labs, Bangalore when I was interning there. This was part of an all office blood donation camp and I donated about a pint of my blood. I got a Frooty and a biscuit packet and forgot about it. And that was it. Tata, bye bye, see you. Who got my blood, was it really useful, did it save a teenager’s life after an accident?
Second was at Fortis Hospitals in Noida. This was after a request i saw in an office social networking group. I donated blood platelets for a relative of the friend. The colleague thanked me, I got a frooty and forgot about it. And that was it. Tata, bye bye, see you.
When I look back at these instances, I have a few questions:
Can the experience of blood donation be more than just a transactional ‘donate and leave’?
Can it create memories and experience which will motivate a donor to donate more frequently?
Can the experience of blood donation be systematically organized such that I can find donors with ease online and approach them requesting for blood? And can donors be enrolled online and then they can receive information when they are willing to donate blood? And why haven’t there been any leading startups/ organisations in this space? A lack of a clear revenue model leads to a unorganized segment always?
Why do we need to do this? Beside the factor that any experience is worth designing well, India lacks blood donors. And a place which provides a great experience for blood donors and seekers of blood donors can play a vital role in saving lives in India.
On a quick Google search I found these sites:
http://www.bloodbankindia.net/
http://www.indianblooddonors.in/
Most of these sites fall into a dull, form-filling category of blood donation. ‘Hey it’s blood donation, we can just keep it utilitarian’; Utilitarian is okay for clearing Level 1 table stakes; I believe we can do better than just being utilitarian now. With all the technology and design resources available, we can create something for people that makes the noble, generous act of blood donation a better experience online.
And AFAIK India doesn’t have a site yet which provides a great experience to people who are willing to donate blood.
That’s something which can be redesigned.
(There are a few more ideas in this topic; will update them in this page as and when it’s relevant. Photo Courtesy: Simply Blood)
