Priya's Donor Screen

Every donation morning Priya stands at the desk with her phone and ticks off weight, blood pressure and current medicines for each donor.

Who this is for

Priya Kulkarni runs a blood donor group in Nashik. About two hundred names on her list, a camp one Sunday a month in the Ganesh mandal hall, two helpers and a borrowed BP machine. It is 8:40 in the morning. Sandeep is on the plastic chair with his sleeve pushed up, the weighing scale is between them, and Priya has the phone in her left hand because her right hand is holding the cuff.

How the job is done today

A long register book with columns she draws herself using a steel scale. One line per donor, name, weight, BP, medicines, fit or not fit. When the queue builds up she writes the reading on the back of her hand and copies it later, and sometimes she copies it wrong. Deferrals get a small star in the margin. On Sunday night she sits at home and types the whole book into an Excel sheet on her brother's laptop, and by then she cannot remember whether Shabana's 96 was the weight or the lower BP number. The donor group on WhatsApp has 180 people in it and she still messages everyone individually when it is time to come back.

The screens, in order

1. Start the camp — Marks that a camp is running here today so every screening from this morning stays together without her thinking about it.
2. Who is in front of me — Finds the donor by first two letters of the name or last four digits of the phone, or takes a walk-in with just a name and blood group.
3. Last time — Shows in one glance when this person last gave blood and whether they were sent home the last time, before Priya starts asking anything.
4. The checklist — Walks through weight, blood pressure, haemoglobin and current medicines one question at a time so she never has to look for a small box.
5. Fit or come back later — Records the decision and, if it is a deferral, the reason and the date the donor can return.
6. End of camp — Tells her how many gave blood, how many she turned away and why, so she can close the hall and leave.

What it keeps track of

• Donors — name, phone, blood group, year of birth, when they last gave blood, anything to remember about them
• Camps — which place, which date, who ran it, started and finished
• Screenings — which donor, which camp, weight, upper and lower blood pressure, haemoglobin, medicines they are on, fit or sent home, the reason, the date to come back

The one decision that matters

Everything on one long form, or one question filling the whole screen. A single form is faster for someone sitting at a desk with both hands free, and that is how these things are usually built. Priya is never sitting and never has both hands. She is looking at the donor, not at the phone, and she taps by feel. So it should be one question at a time, each answer a band across the full width of the screen, and numbers on a keypad with digits big enough to hit without looking. She loses a second or two per donor and stops losing readings altogether. If she needs to fix something, a back arrow in the bottom corner where her thumb already is.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out the emergency blood request feature, where someone needs O negative at two in the morning and the app finds nearby donors. Everyone will ask for it. It is a different app with different urgency and different risk, and building it now means the screening flow gets designed around a search box instead of around a woman holding a BP cuff. Also leave out messaging donors from inside the app. She has WhatsApp open anyway.

How you would know it worked

The register book stays in Priya's bag all morning. She packs up at half past one, walks to the auto, and there is nothing left to copy out at night.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a blood donor group in Nashik and I need a phone app for our monthly camp. Let me start a camp for the day, then find a donor by the first letters of the name or the last four digits of the phone, or add a walk-in with just name and blood group. Then take me through the screening one question at a time with big buttons I can hit with my thumb, because I am standing and my other hand is busy with the cuff. Weight, blood pressure and haemoglobin should come up on a large number pad, and for medicines give me the common ones to tap plus a place to type something unusual. Show me when he last donated before I start. At the end give fit or sent home, and if sent home let me pick the reason and the date he can return. When the camp finishes show me how many gave blood and how many I turned away.