I have a confession: I have never donated blood in my life. I have donated plasma around 4 times during my early 20s but my main motivation here was the 40€ that were offered after the donation. I have wanted to donate blood often but it always seemed like a lot of work. There was never the time, the places were too far away or I had just recently got a piercing or tattoo which forbid me to donate…the usual excuses. But I never really actively tried to book an appointment or go to a donation campaign when i was eligible to do so.
In my dream world where there is an e-health application for all things medical, blood donation would be an easy and accessible process where you get a notification every couple of months to remind you to donate blood at a place near you. Not an extra app, website or random instagram post you see and then forget it exists.
How to book an appointment
Option 1: Web
In a quick google search “blut spenden graz” I was directed to the website of the Red Cross. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was to book the appointment via the browser. The only thing that was annoying was that the initial page to see available appointments was all appointments in Styria and not filtered by Graz. I would also have loved to have a map and see my location to see where exactly the locations were because I don’t know my way around Graz that well jet. But apart from the fact that the design was a little outdated the process was pretty simple and within 5 minutes I had my appointment booked.
Option 2: Mein Blut App
Next I downloaded two apps from the Red Cross. I was a little confused that there were two apps and I still don’t really know whats the difference but more on the other one later. The Mein Blut app downloaded faster so thats the one I tried first. I quickly created an account and was onboarded into the app. I really liked that different sections were highlighted.
I liked the map feature so I could choose the closest location to me. But even though i granted permission to the app to use my location, I wasn’t able to see my location in the app and had to find my closest location by zooming in from the entirety of the whole Austrian map.
Overall the app had a simple design and was easy to navigate through. Booking an appointment was straightforward but unfortunately I was not able to fill out the questionnaire in this app. I was directed to the “Meine Blutspende” app. Annoying!
Option 3: Meine Blutspende App
I’m guessing that this is the more “official” app. At first glance it seems more outdated. “Mein Blut” is much more modern but I’m assuming that it’s not available in Styria.
QR Code after completing the questionnare revealed that this is only valid for one day. I was not aware of this and now I will have to do the whole thing again the day before my appointment. Annoying!
After testing the different ways for booking donation appointments I can conclude that there is lots of room for improvement with the booking process. Let’s see what I will come up with in my next blog post.
