"Transpire bought fresh ideas and solutions to solving some new experiences that we were exploring for donors. The outcome of this activity will help us decide on where to further invest in the given set of mobile features but also to open the door to a new way to testing customer value."
The Challenge
Australian Red Cross Lifeblood is committed to providing life-giving essence to support the everyday wellbeing of all Australians. In the past year, it collected nearly 1.5 million blood donations.
As part of a forward thinking innovation strategy, Lifeblood continues to explore ways in which it can enhance the donation experience. To this end, it partnered with Monash University Design Health Collab to interview donors for insights on where and how donation experiences could be improved.
These findings resulted in a number of invaluable, high-level concepts that were ready and waiting to be investigated further.
This is where Transpire comes in, as UX Designer Garry Yeoh explains:
“Our challenge was to validate the future concepts that Monash Health Collab had discovered. We asked ourselves, ‘how do you make them testable and relatable to donors whose touch points are very much in the present?’”
Transpire’s human-centered design process explored four themes based on what the future of blood donation could look like, with the aim of helping Lifeblood succeed in its mission to deliver exceptional experiences to customers, and to aid an increase in donations.
Please note: The below images were created as concepts for usability testing.
Overcoming constraints with restraint
With the project commencing during the COVID-19 lockdown, everything needed to be done remotely. Although this isn’t ideal for activities like collaborative design exploration, where numerous ideas can be rapidly discussed, online video conferencing tools (such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams) and Miro (previously known as RealTime Board) proved their worth in more ways than one.
“Whenever we have a meeting with stakeholders or customers, it’s important to assume that not everyone will be on the same page,” said Zac Dickerson, Senior UX Consultant at Transpire. “We must give just the right amount of context by communicating key ideas to limit any confusion.
“In presentations, we found we could utilise chat features too, so if anyone had questions along the way, one of the team could answer them.”
With a timeline of only eight weeks, restraint was also important when it came to the designs.
“I love seeing projects come to life. I love seeing designs to the point where we can hand it over to a customer and see it built or implemented,” explains Dickerson.
“But that’s not where we were in the project. Lifeblood isn’t at the point of developing any tech right now, which meant framing and communicating our designs in a way that would help in the future.”
This also resulted in a high level of transparency. Designs were submitted to Miro, a collaborative whiteboard platform, for everyone to see and comment upon. It was also where research questions and information from internal retros could live for the ultimate in clarity and cooperation.
"Our experience working alongside the Transpire team was enjoyable and positive given the energy they brought in the room and flexibility to work within our constraints."
Multiple stakeholders, one outcome
Throughout the project, Transpire worked closely alongside Lifeblood and Monash Design Health Collab on a series of immersion, design and validation activities.
Ideation sessions helped diverge and explore a wide set of designs, which were converged into a final set of concepts ready to be put in front of donors.
Each of the proposed solutions was then tested multiple times to gather insights for the future roadmap of Lifeblood’s mobile app.
“The key to the project’s success was our ability to pick up the domain space quickly,” notes Transpire’s Director of User Experience Amir Ansari. “We had to work within very constrained boundaries and bring various stakeholders along with us on the journey.”
For Dickerson, this collaboration between stakeholders set the project up for success from day one.
“One thing I really took away from the project was how well we all supported each other,” he said. “Both Lifeblood and Monash were really generous with the assets and time they gave us.”
“When we engage with other organisations that aren’t directly a customer, we strive to help them succeed as well. It has a long-lasting and positive effect on projects.”
Commenting on the engagement, Transpire CEO Josh Guest also expressed his joy at the level of teamwork on display.
“Working with another partner, all to benefit the customer, is so valuable and important for a consultancy like Transpire,” he said. “We are extremely proud to be trusted by many of Australia’s leading organisations , but this is only possible if our staff always puts the customer first and provides value every step of the way.
“I’m immensely proud that this joint effort between Transpire, Lifeblood and Monash Design Health Collab achieved such a positive outcome.”
The concepts that Transpire tested and validated have now been passed onto the business unit responsible for Lifeblood’s future technology roadmap. Their feasibility and viability will then be assessed with an aim to implement experience improvements for Australia’s thousands of blood donors.
