I. GATHERING REQUIREMENTS -- USER ANALYSIS
PROPOSED TASKS
There are three main tasks that can be done in our proposed system. which are:
Request for blood and assistance which is done by the recipients
Organize events and blood campaigns which is done by the hospitals and NGO's.
Make donations, either blood or financial which is done by the donors(NGO's and individuals).
PERSONAS
The blood care application system will be used by three major categories of people. These user groups include;
The blood Donors
The blood Recipients
The Hospitals and other Non Governmental Organizations.
The Blood Donors
This user group consists of individuals who are eligible to donate their blood to others who need these donations. The blood donor group consists of teenagers and adults ranging from the age of 17 years and above in good health condition, they could be students or professionals e.g degree holders.
Miss Naomi is a twenty-four year old lawyer. She is philanthropic and loves humanity. She works at Alliance Law Firm, a respectable law firm in Abuja. Miss Naomi is eager to help individuals who need blood by donating her blood. She hopes to help save lives by donating her blood to those with health conditions who require blood. However, she fears her blood may not be used to help people in need but would be sold at a high price to the sick. Miss Naomi frequently checks websites and the social media for blood donor requests and often goes to the hospital for screening to check her eligibility to donate blood. She also, helps to raise awareness by sharing blood campaigns with her friends and family. Miss Naomi wishes she could see stories of the actual people whom she has helped as this would be very satisfying and encourage her to even make more donations. She also wishes an app with a good database was available to ease and speed up the entire process of blood donation and the search for blood requests.
She feels very satisfied and happy each time she donates her blood, as she believes she has helped save a life.
ROLES OF THE BLOOD DONOR
Furthermore, the major role of the blood donors is to empathise with those with health conditions and offer help in ways possible, that is through financial assistance or blood donation. The individuals who belong to the blood donor user group ought to carry out the following activities;
Check the websites, applications and media for blood donation requests.
The Donors can upload their details and status of availability on the app
Call the hospital/organization to inquire on the blood bank status.
Carry out self evaluation to ascertain eligibility to donate blood.
The donors accept blood requests on the app.
Go to the hospital to be screened and to donate blood.
Raise awareness by sharing blood donation activities with friends and the media.
Make financial donations to assist blood recipients and blood drive events if they are financially buoyant.
FEARS AND UNCERTAINTIES OF THE BLOOD DONORS
Senses of the Blood donors
Statements made by blood donors;
1.I really want to help but I haven't really helped myself yet.
2.How can I trust that my blood is really being used to help people and not being sold.
3.I don't actually want to donate my blood free of charge, I need compensation as I can barely take care of myself.
4.Its a stressful process, I don't have the time for it.
The blood donors often hear the following statements;
Not all the blood donated is useful.
There are donation requests on websites or newspapers that are fake.
Your blood type is not popular, because only a few people have the blood type.
These statements lead to uncertainty on the part of the donor.
The blood donor category of users often experience certain drawbacks and uncertainties, these uncertainties include;
The blood donors fear their blood may not help people.
They worry that the blood transfusion may have negative effects on them, particularly with regards to their health.
Those who are not financially buoyant feel they cannot donate, although they want to because they have not fully met their personal needs.
HOPES OF THE BLOOD DONORS
The blood donors hope to help other people who are in life threatening situations. The feeling of empathy is conjured in them which prompts them to offer assistance to those who need help in the form of finance or through donating blood.
WANTS
Although the blood donors are eager to be of help to others who are in need of blood, they want validation and compensation. The blood donors want to be compensated and see evidence of the effect of their blood donation, i.e be shown people who have been helped by their donations.
NEEDS
For those donors who are not financially buoyant, they require assistance in order to be encouraged to donate blood.
Transportation and other services is a necessity for this category of donors.
Figure 1a: Empathy Map of Donor
Figure 1b: Ameera, a 27 year old Financial Donor
Figure 1c:Amina, a 32 year old financial donor
Figure 1d: Naomi, a 24 year old Blood Donor
GOOGLE SURVEY
In order to acquire further understanding of the donor user group, a google survey was carried out in the form of questionnaire on 24 individuals. Eight individuals have donated blood at least once and 16 individuals never donated blood. The charts below display the findings of the survey;
Figure2a: Survey on blood type and gender. It can be inferred that the AB blood type is the rarest blood type.
Figure2b: Survey on age and status of blood donation. According to the responses most individuals have never donated blood before.
Figure2c: Reasons why donors donate blood and how often they donate blood.
Figure2d: Ways donors think they can be motivated to donate blood.
Figure2e: Survey on why individuals have not donated blood and what they think would motivate them to donate.
BLOOD RECIPIENT
This user group comprises persons who need to find a donor for getting blood. This group consists of people of all ages either young people or elderly who have health conditions and require frequent blood transfusion.
Susan Idoko is a 17 year old, born and raised in Nigeria by her parents. She suffered from a stroke in 2015 which was a complication of the sickle cell disease. The process of blood transfusion has become her recurring reality as she is frequently admitted in the hospital and requires blood. Over the years the process of acquiring blood for Susan became more difficult and the cost of the blood rose significantly. In 2018, Susan was once again admitted and required blood transfusion, Susan's parents needed to find a donor for Susan as they could no longer afford to buy blood at the hospital. They fear there may be no suitable blood type in the blood bank and the response from the donor may be slow. Susan's family hopes to find a suitable donor and requires an application that can ease the process.
ROLES OF BLOOD RECIPIENTS
Blood recipients require help from other people to get blood in order to keep good health. To get a continuous blood supply, the recipient must do several things as below:
Ask relatives, friends or colleagues for blood donation
Post their request in any social media, news paper or blood donation app
Asking help from other people to spread their request
Call the donors, who follow the requirement to donate blood in terms of blood type, health condition and living area, to ask for help.
Ask the hospitals to get blood supply from hospital’s blood bank
FEAR OF THE BLOOD RECIPIENT
The recipient must accept blood from other people to save their life. However, there are some matters that worry them in getting the blood. Below are some statements that they often hear:
There is no suitable blood type in blood bank
There are some cases where blood recipients who suddenly get disease due to the blood transfusion from the donor (e.g HIV).
The response from the donor may be slow or not even get any response
It is hard to find donor who has same blood type especially for rare blood type (e.g AB-)
These statements may lead to their fear and anxiety in getting blood.
Fear that there is no one who is known has same blood type or cannot find suitable blood type
Worry that there is no time for waiting to find suitable blood due to slow response from donors.
They did not get any response from their post about finding blood
Have trust issue to accept blood from people due to cases before (recipient get HIV from donor)
They might cannot afford to pay the extra fees for blood transfusion
HOPE OF BLOOD RECIPIENT
The recipient hopes that there is a worryless solution in getting blood because it involves their life and it would be very helpful if there is an app that can ease them finding blood. The recipient also hopes that they can find a suitable blood donor as soon as possible.
WANTS
Transfusion of blood costs a higher price and they would be grateful if they are provided financial support or at the very least not charged with extra fees.
Figure 3: Empathy Map of Recipient
Figure 3b: Susan Idoko, a 17 year old blood recipient who requires blood donation due to sickle cell and stroke.
Figure3c:Hafsat, a 28 year old accident victim who requires financial assistance
Google Survey
In order to acquire further understanding of the recipient user group, a google survey was carried out in the form of questionnaire on 24 individuals. Two individuals have scouted for blood donors. The charts below display the findings of the survey;
Figure4a: Individuals who have searched for blood donors
Figure4b:Reason for scout and ease of finding a donor.
Figure4c: Means adopted to find a donor and ways these individuals think can be adopted to ease the process
HOSPITALS AND OTHER NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
The hospital and NGO user group category consists of the bodies that cater to the needs of individuals with health conditions. They provide care and support for these individuals and work towards restoring them to good health.
THE HOSPITAL AND OTHER NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
Dr Lisa is a twenty-three year old Dr who works at Pakar Skudai Hospital situated in Skudai Johor, the hospital is currently running low on blood supply in the blood bank and as a result they need to find blood donors before the blood runs out, they also start selling blood at a very high price due to this reason. They have patients who require urgent blood transfusion whom they advice to seek for donors who have the same blood type. Although they hope to save patients lives and restore them to good health status, they fear that patients may not be able to find donors in time and would also not be able to pay for their medical bills and as a result may lose their lives due to the amount of time wasted, they are also worried that donors who volunteer to donate blood may not be eligible.
Elmer Aluge is a twenty-seven year old bio-medical scientist. She is the President of the Sickle Cell Aid Foundation popularly known as SCAF which is a non-governmental organization located in Abuja, Nigeria. The main aim of the foundation is to cater to the needs of sickle cell patients. The ngo through the social media makes tremendous financial donations to individuals who require financial assistance. Elmer alongside her SCAF team also organizes events and blood drive programs to create awareness on donations to sickle cell patients and other individuals who require frequent blood transfusion.
The hospital and other NGO's in a bid to get sufficient blood in the blood bank organize events and blood campaigns on social media in order to raise awareness and encourage individuals to donate blood. However, this process is rather difficult as a database cannot be obtained from the social media. They wish an app that could facilitate the process could be made available. The hospital and NGO's are satisfied satisifed knowing they can make positive impact on the health of individuals who require frequent blood transfusion and help to save their lives.
ROLES OF THE HOSPITALS AND NGO’s
The hospital need blood transfusion especially for small hospital in the village where there are limited resource for example, the blood bank does not have adequate amout of blood or lacks blood of some blood types. Also, they are
conservative and may not like to donate blood. The actions carried out by the hospital and other NGO’s include;
1.They can post their request for blood donor in specific blood donation apps,websites, newspapers or communities.
2.Hospital will get the information by notification on apps or call or email.
3.NGO’s can support blood recipients by raising awareness.
4.NGO’s organize events and blood drives, and campaigns.
5.NGO’s render financial support where applicable.
PAINS OF THE HOSPITAL AND NGO’S
1.They fear patients die because of inability to find a donor or lack of adequate finance.
2. They are worried that donors who are willing to volunteer may not be eligible to donate blood.
3.They fear the blood recipients may react negatively to the blood when transfused and this motivates them to carry out extensive screening of blood before admission.
GAINS/ HOPES AND NEEDS OF THE HOSPITAL AND NGO’S
The hospital and other ngo’s hope to save patients lives. Their top priority is to ensure patients are restored to good health and live life happily and confidently. In order to do this, they need more eligible blood donors who can donate blood to save patients lives.
SENSES
THINGS THE HOSPITAL AND OTHER NGO’S HEAR
1.Individuals are afraid that blood donation will not help others.
2. Individuals want to be paid to donate.
3.Individuals would like to go to big hospitals to donate blood because of hygiene.
4.Individuals fear needles and taking injections.
THINGS THE HOSPITAL AND OTHER NGO’s SEE
1.Social media and specific blood donation apps can help hospitals to spread request of blood donation.
2.They see individuals respond more to requests online i.e over social media and apps than to the requests made by the hospitals.
THINGS THE HOSPITAL AND OTHER NGO’s SAY
1.It is a bit hard to get blood fast for our small hospital.
2.We have already posted the blood donation request , but we have to wait for long time or no response.
3.There are donors would like to blood donation, but some blood types already enough in our blood bank, or not for current patients, we urgently need other blood types.
4.Since the blood bank is limited, we really need blood from others, but it is very hard to find donors quickly as they are not willing to donate and some who are willing are ineligible.
Figure 3: Empathy Map of Hospital and NGO's
Figure 3b: NGO organizes blood drive
Figure 3c: Elmer Aluge, 27year old president of the SCAF(Sickle Cell Aid Foundation) NGO
SCENARIOS
BLOOD RECIPIENT
The blood recipient carries out the first task/function in the system which is to request for blood and/or financial assistance.
Michael Angelo is a twenty-five year old student with sickle cell disorder. He was born to parents Elizabeth Dwindle Blake 50 years and Kobe Blake 67 years. He requires frequent blood transfusion, however these costs accompanied with his tuition and other expenditures have become over bearing for his parents. They stumble upon the blood donation app where he registers and sets his current location. The app notifies donors who are within the region and shows a list to the family. The family requests for blood on the app, however Michael Angelo’s parents can no longer afford proper medical services, they discover they can request for financial assistance on the app and are elated. Elizabeth and Kobe Blake request financial assistance on the app and are quickly given feedback and approval of financial support. A blood donor also accepts the blood request and the process was carried out much faster than they expected.
BLOOD DONOR
The blood donor carries out the second task/function in the system which is to accept the request from the donor, make blood donations , and make financial donations if possible.
Miss Naomi is a twenty-four year old lawyer. She is philanthropic and loves humanity. Miss Naomi is eager to help individuals who need blood by donating her blood. She registers as a donor on the blood donation app and is prompted to set her current location. The app assures her that her details will be kept private and secure and this eliminates any doubt in her heart of continuing the process. Miss Naomi sees the request for blood made by Michael Angelo and is eager to help. However she is first prompted by the app to carry out a self evaluation in order to test her eligibility. The app asks her questions like, when last did you donate blood, do you smoke or drink? Etc. Miss Naomi completes this process and passes the self evaluation test, excited she quickly clicks the accept request button and puts a convenient date and time to donate within the date that has been given by the recipients. Miss Naomi also discovers that she can request for transport assistance on the app and is very excited.
Miss Naomi also sees the donate funds on the app feature and opts to be a financial donor also.
She feels satisfied, that she was able to help save a life.
THE HOSPITAL AND OTHER NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
The hospital and other Ngo’s are the bodies that work towards restoring individuals to good health. They render services to patients in order to ensure they feel better again and do not lose their lives.
Pakar Skudai Hospital is a hospital situated in Skudai Johor, they are currently running low on blood supply in the blood bank and as a result they need to find blood donors before the blood runs out, they also start selling blood at a very high price due to this reason. Dr Lisa has patients who require urgent blood transfusion whom she advices to seek for donors who have the same blood type. The hospital in a bid to get sufficient blood in the blood bank organizes events and blood campaigns on the app in order to raise awareness and encourage individuals to donate blood. Dr Lisa also provide tips to individuals that can be used to self evaluate on their eligibility to donate blood. Individuals opt to donate blood, thereby saving lives and Dr Lisa and all medical practitioners in the hospital are satisifed knowing they can attend to the needs of their patients.
II. Gathering Requirements - Task Analysis
INTRODUCTION
In order to deeply understand and improve the features on the proposed system analysis was carried out on already existing systems. There are several systems that were chosen to be analyzed for our 3 tasks. Below are the surmised findings from the extensive study of the tasks on the existing systems;
Request blood and assistance
Request blood task on ‘Save Life Connect’
The ‘Save Life Connect’ app is mainly aimed at helping people who need blood, and solving the problem of blood transfusion emergencies by connecting blood donors directly. There are two tasks in ‘Save Life Connect’ related to our tasks, which are: request blood by recipient, and make donations by donor.
The target user of this task is the recipient who can post a blood request of the blood types needed.
Operation: When a recipient wants to request blood, they are asked to enter their information and the questions asked in the process are;
Do you need whole blood or platelets(Whole Blood/Platelets/AB Plasma/Double Red/Cord Blood/I Don’t Know
What blood group do you need?(A+/A-/B+/B-/AB+/AB-/O+/O-/OH+/Other/Don’t Know)
What’s the reason of this request?(Accident/Surgery/Pregnancy/Cancer/Transplant/Thalassemia/Low HB/Other)
At which hospital you need a blood donor(select a hospital )
Write a message for potential donors(explain donors why you need blood and how urgent)
Are you posting this request for someone(enter phone number)
Finish
In this task, the ‘Save Life Connect’ makes the process very simple and clear for the recipient. So when the recipient finished the request blood, the recipient knows the application recommends the donors base on their blood need and location and do not worry about the possibility of the system making a mismatch. This task will be similar to that of the proposed system.
Figure 4: steps to do request blood task
Request assistance on ‘Begging Money’
Begging Money is to get help with money worries from organizations or strangers or rich people, etc. A target user is a person who may have financial problems in any bad unsolved situation. This task can be done by:
Write explaining your situation
The text must be unique
The system checks whether the same request is already published elsewhere on the Internet
Create your PayPal.me link
Place your PayPal.me link at the end of your request
Spell check your request, there are many tools to help – for example, MS Word or Google Translator
Select correct Category(your current problem)
Double-check your paypal.me address to receive donations!
Target users are asked to provide the document of the target user problem in order to give necessary and appropriate money. If the system agrees to the application, they will get the money.
For our task ‘request’ assistance, the target user of our task is recipients who have financial problems when they need to do blood transfusion or surgery. It will also ask recipients to provide the document for their situation and medical certification. After that system will notify whether they successfully get the money or not.
Figure 5: Request assistance for a financial donation
Make Donations on ‘Save Life Connect’
The target user of the Make Donations task of ‘Save Life Connect’ system is donors who will be assigned to make blood donations for recipients for blood transfusion when they register in the system or who would like to make financial donations to support recipients. On ‘Save Life Connect’, the financial donation is to donate to the system. Which is done by these steps:
Select the money you want to donate
It will connect to Google Play Store
Confirm payment by using Google Play Pay
The task in the system has an obvious con which is that the donation fee is fixed, the donors are not able to donate how much they are willing to. For our task, the target user is donors who are allowed to donate how much they want to.
Figure 6: Make donation Figure 7: payment
Organize events on MyBloodHero
The task of organizing events on ‘MyBloodHero’ is the way to create blood campaigns and events. The system helps target users publish in the system. These campaigns and events are time-limited. It helps target users to organize different events based on current needings. This task could be done:
Choose any photo to share
Create a campaign name
Enter campaign venue
Enter district and state
Select start date and duration
Enter the start and end time
Click confirm to share the campaign
This task provides convenience to help them to organize an event about the donation and also provide a platform to share these events. In our system, the target user of this task is NGO and the hospital, it helps them to organize their own events.
Figure 8: Interface for launch event
FUNCTIONS IN THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
1. Request blood
2. Organize an event
3. donate blood
STEPS
1.register/login
2. set location
3. blood recipients make request and request for financial assistance if need be
4. blood donors self evaluate with tips provided on the app and accept the request if eligible.
5.Blood donors request assistance/help
6. Hospital and organizations set/publicize blood drive programs and events
7. Blood donors who are financially buoyant and NGO’s donate fund for financial assistance
HIERARCHICAL TASK ANALYSIS
The user groups which are the recipients, donors and, the hospital and other non-governmental organizations were asked to perform the three tasks in the system using current systems. The users were encouraged to carry out the tasks and share their grievances and likes about the the current systems. Below is the HTA we derived for the three tasks from the user observation.
The video below displays the current system adopted by an NGO (sickle Cell aid foundation) to find donors using social media
Video 1: NGO scouting for the donor using social
The video below shows the system adopted by NGO's to organise blood campaigns and events.
Video 2: NGO using an app to organise blood campaigns and events
Video 3: Blood recipient using an app to make a request for blood donors.
Video 4: donor using an app to make a Funds Donation to help those in need of blood.
REQUEST FOR BLOOD/ASSISTANCE
The request for blood and/or assistance task is carried out by the blood recipient user group.
Figure 9:HTA request for blood/assistance
Plan 0:
Do 1 if not registered member
else skip to process 2;
Do 3
Plan 1:
Do 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 in order
Plan 2:
Do 2.1 until find appropriate donor;
Do 2.2
Plan 3:
Do 3.1, 3.2 in order
END
FINDINGS
The recipients can only request for blood and/or financial assistance if he/she is registered. The recipient is required to check the donor list and send requests to the donors if any available. The recipient also opts for financial assistance if necessary and is required to state the reasons and provide proof of financial instability after which the recipient waits for approval.
2. DONATE BLOOD
Figure 10:Donate blood
Plan 0:
If not registered member, do 1 - 2
else skip 1
If there is any request, do 3
To accept the request, do 4 - 5
Plan 1:
Do 1.1, 1.2 in order
Plan 3:
Do 3.1
If the recipient is nearby, do 3.2
Plan 5:
Do 5.1
If get available time, do 5.2
FINDINGS
The donor is required to be registered in the system in order to carry out the donate blood operation, the donor checks his/her notifications and can only accept to request blood if there is a blood request by the recipient. The donor is required to carry out a preliminary self evaluation before opting to accept the request and if the donor passes the examination, the donor accepts the request and sets the preferential date and time to visit the hospital.
3. DONATE FUNDS
Figure 11: Donate funds
Plan 0:
If not registered member, do 1 - 3
else skip 1
If have enough balance, do 4
Plan 1:
Do 1.1, 1.2 in order
FINDINGS
From the HTA above, the donors must be registered to carry out the donate fund operation. The donor is required to choose the amount of money he/she would like to donate. The donor is only allowed to donate specific amounts of money e.g 5rm,10rm,15rm and finds this distasteful as they do not like to be restricted on amounts to donate.
4. ORGANIZE EVENTS
Figure12:Organize events
PLAN 0:
Do 1 if not registered, else do 2
Plan 1:
Do 1.1, 1.2 in order
Plan 2:
Do Plan 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 in any order
END
DISCUSSION
Based on our findings from the questionnaire dispensed, it can be surmised that the users are not completely satisfied with the current systems.
The blood recipients are required to send requests to donors in the system, however a system with a database as large as 100 donors would pose a very stressful ordeal for the recipients to send requests or find donors who are compatible with their blood type. The proposed system will obtain requests from the recipients and send this request out to blood donors of compatible blood groups, who live within close proximity with the recipient. this would be a faster and more efficient approach of finding donors by the recipients.
Furthermore, the users who are donors expressed disappointment in their inability to see individuals whom they helped or need help. The current systems do not create any avenue for the recipients to share their stories, so as to motivate the donors to continue donating and also encourage other individuals to donate. In the proposed system, the feature which allows recipients to share their encouraging stories and evidence that help was duly received will be implemented. This would satisfy the wants of the donors and encourage individuals to utilise the system.
The current systems do not also allow for follow up on the users. The proposed system will allow the users to be expressive and share their opinions, feedback and complaints in order to improve its services.
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