How might we make future blood donation centers more welcoming for first time donors?
The National Health Services requires 6,000 blood donations a day and 2,000 new donors every year. With half of their repeat donors over 45 years old, the NHS needs to attract younger donors. The NHS worked with Common Good to create a new experience and service guidelines for future blood donation centers.
I completed this professional project with interior design partner, No Chintz while interning with Common Good.
Proposed Design
Our goal was to ease the anxiety of first time donors. Most new donors were uncomfortable with the donation process and found the centers to be intimidating, confusing, and unfriendly.
The team and I conducted primary research by visiting donation centers throughout the U.K. We recruited first time and repeat donors within our own team to donate blood. We ran design sprints and co-design sessions with stakeholders and our partner company. Our guidelines for physical layout along with adjustments to the donor journey to make blood donation a more enjoyable experience.
INTUITIVE FLOW FOR DONORS
We simplified the donor journey to smoothly move from step to step. The physical layout and incremental sign posting prepares and directs donors to the next station. We moved the staff functions to the back and grouped donor-related activities to the front.
Current donor journey
Proposed donor journey
EASE ANXIETY
The center is designed to help donors relax and feel secure. At the entrance donors see when entering the center are sign in kiosks and a friendly staff member to help them check in. A storage space is available for donors to stash their belongings.
The waiting room utilizes a blue and green color palette to create a calming atmosphere. The walls and ceilings have inspiring messaging and art to keep the mind busy. We chose a mix of furniture options to give the donors a chance to sit comfortably and chat among themselves.
Entrance to the donation center
Refreshment area where donors rest after getting blood drawn
MAXIMIZE FLEXIBILITY
We proposed modular furnishing to maximize flexibility in the space. This allows the design to be applied to future donation centers, regardless of the shape of the space. The donors and staff can adjust their environment to fit their needs.
Modular furniture allows addition of desks and check-in stations as needed.
Design Process
The team and I visited 6 donation centers in the U.K. to talk to staff and donors. We also conducted empathy research by donating blood ourselves at our local NHS blood donation center in Manchester.
In our research, we found that first-time donors feel intimidated and unwelcome. They were confused by the open layout and the lack of way-finding signage. Donors were handed extensive literature about the donation process, but most were overwhelmed by the amount of information and confused by the medical jargon.
The refreshment area of a donation center
Mapping out the layout of each center
Fleshing out a service blueprint for donors and staff
EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF COLOR
A large part of our research phase was dedicated to exploring how color impacts the donation experience. The donation centers had varied color palettes and were covered in red decorations and signs, which made some new donors feel queasy and unsettled.
We tested color combinations and color proportions with donors and staff members at 3 donation centers. We found that blues and greens were the most calming while oranges and yellows were the most celebratory. I created the visuals for the mood boards and analyzed the survey results. I used a mix of quick excel to collate the results and used python scripts to generate visuals to share our results to stakeholders.
Color palette test material and resulting word clouds
PROTOTYPING IN VIRTUAL REALITY
As we tested our mood boards, we found that we could not separate the details (furnishing, lighting, etc.) of the photos from the colors. Donors would naturally focus on whether they liked a couch instead of on the different colors.
To mitigate this, I explored how to test new color schemes in Virtual Reality. Instead of a physical build out, VR provides a more immersive environment in a shorter amount of time. After a bit of experimenting, I used a mix of quick Photoshop and ready made VR platforms, like Google Streetview and Roundme, to create a prototype that kept the furnishing the same and only adjusted the color (my tutorial is in this Medium article).
The Common Good office redone in pink!
My prototype was a proof of concept for the power of VR. In internal trials, we found that this method significantly changed the mood of a space solely by changing colors. While we were not able to test this approach with donors, we presented our final design to our client in VR.
A NHS stakeholder viewing our 3D model of the redesign
Ideation & Co-Design
Following our research phase, we conducted a week-long sprint with NHS stakeholders and project partners. During the week we presented our findings and conducted co-design sessions. I ran a "future thinking" workshop, a few different brainstorming sessions, and taught different techniques to evaluating options.
We were able to get a deeper understanding of where the NHS is headed and where stakeholders believe the medical field is heading. The brainstorming sessions led us to develop principles that No Chintz was able to take and create a final design for.
My Role
My role in the project revolved around research and ideation. I interviewed donors and staff members. I went through the donation process myself to put myself in a new donor's shoes. I created and tested the visuals for testing color palettes and analyzed the results. I debriefed stakeholders and No-Chintz on our findings and ran co-creation workshops.
