Helping save lives

Supporting blood donation across Scotland

Informing and attracting blood donors

24/7
Showing blood stock levels
60%
Using mobile devices
1
Eligibility quiz

The Challenge

NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) as part of its Digital Engagement Strategy wanted to build a refreshed Scotblood branded website.

This campaign website informs current blood donors and attracts new donors. The new site would act as the primary online destination for Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) for all donor activity.

With a large and engaging social media presence, Scotblood needed a new site that was responsive on mobile devices as well as desktop.

The site needed to educate users on blood types, current stocks and eligibility criteria. With donation sessions taking place across Scotland, including the 6 static donor centres, the functionality to search for session times was also important to include.

The Objectives

  • Improve User Experience

    Provide an accessible and informative website that is responsive by default, provides rich content and is integrated with social media
  • Support users

    Help potential donors throughout their user journey from donation eligibility to locating nearest donation centre
  • Increase access and engagement with target audience

    Educate potential donors on eligibility and blood groups to increase the registration and timely attendance of donors
  • Technical reuse and value

    Help NSS reuse existing in-house technologies and only introduce additional technologies when required

The Insight

We undertook a technical workstream to integrate with the core NSS Elasticsearch instance - implemented by Storm as part of another project – and it involved integrating a localised index for the Scotblood site to power both the donation session search and main site search.

Sites across the NSS digital estate will be able to aggregate search results from both their own content as well as relevant content from other associated sources within the same search results. Simultaneously, they will maintain the power to filter results and discover new content through the power of multi-organisational faceted view.

The Result

Providing an enhanced experience for the end user and a unique opportunity for NSS to lead the way in opening its many data sources to the public.

We also worked with SNBTS and held interviews with donors and potential donors to ensure relevant and evidence based information was used to develop the user journey. This helped SNBTS present engaging and relevant information and features and it is hoped this approach will deliver long-term benefits. 

Key Features

Reactive and useable website that meets user needs

Positive user feedback during 8 week beta period. Over 60% of traffic is from mobile devices.

Highly visible animated blood stock levels

Updated daily.

Powerful donation session search

To help potential donors find donor centres near them.

Focused interface

Based on usability testing.

Get in Touch

If you're looking to support citizens with easier access to information and digital services, get in touch and we can discuss your requirements.