ADVANCEMENT OF BLOOD DONATION APPLICATION, NOVEMBER 2015
Advancement of Blood Donation Application
Chetan Sundarde, Suhani Jain And Eram Shaikh
Department of computer engineering,
Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune, India-411041.
Abstract—Blood is saviour of all existing lives in case of
emergency needs such as accidents, operations etc. which creates
an immediate and critical need for specific blood types. Also
blood donor information should be checked before donation.
Blood-donors usually dont come to know about the need for
blood. We propose blood donation applications for cross-platform
mobile platform such as Android,WindowsPhone, IOS etc. using
Apache Cordova Framework. Apache Cordova is a platform for
building natively installed mobile applications using HTML, CSS
and JavaScript. Using single source code to develop application
for different mobile platforms. Allows users to locate donation
clinics and view time slots, so they can make appointments and be
reminded of them afterwards. Use of game mechanics makes it
more interesting to user. Aim is to motivate donors to donate
blood by applying game design and making apps for cross-
platform mobile application.
Index Terms—Cross-Platform Mobile Application, Apache
Cordova, Blood Donor, Game Mechanics
I. I NTRODUCTION
I N spite of the availability of the potential blood donors
not more than 5% of the total Indian population donates
blood. Blood-donors usually dont come to know about the
need for blood, and there is a need to satisfy and motivate these
blood donors. For better communication between department
of blood centers and hospitals, to satisfy blood necessity, to
buy, sale and stock the blood, to give information about this
blood. Also there is need of run-time donors. These are the
reasons that motivate us to develop a more efficient system
that will assist the present blood donation system.
Currently, the public can only know about the blood do-
nation events through conventional media means such as
radio, news paper or television advertisements. Even if there
is electronic means, it is only used to publicize about that
hospital or medical center blood donation drives provided if
that hospital or medical center is having an online portal.
There is no nation wide information regarding the blood
donation drive available on any of the portal. Besides, for
those who want to make blood donation, they cannot make
early reservation or booking on the session and day that they
are free online. It is a very important facility for those who
are very busy and yet enthusiastic people to know and be sure
when they can make blood donation rather than trying to figure
out where and when they can make blood donation when they
are free. There is also no centralized database used to keep the
donors records. Each blood bank is having their own records
of donors. If a donor makes donation in different hospital, no
previous records can be traced except if the donor brings along
the donation certificate. Hence, the donor is considered to be a
first-timer if they make blood donation in a new place. Without
an automated management system, there are also problems in
1
keeping track of the actual amount of each and every blood
type in the blood bank. Man-made error such as forget to
record the usage or input of the blood can cause the inaccuracy
in the amount of certain blood type available in the blood
bank. In addition, there is also no alert available when the
blood quantity is below its par level.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
A. Blood donor apps around the world
There are certainly many apps that seek to assist either blood
donors or transfusion professionals by healthcare services
around the world. Here are some more of them:
• The Canadian Blood Services has GiveBlood (Android
and iOS) for ”Canadians looking to save lives,” available
in English and French. It allows users to locate donation
clinics and view time slots, so they can make appoint-
•
ments and be reminded of them afterwards.
There is also NHSGiveBlood (Android, iOS, ’Windows
Phone) by NHS Blood and Transplant, for blood donors
to search donation centres and make appointments, about
which they’ll be reminded. It also allows users to share
their activity on Facebook and Twitter.
• The American Red Cross (RedCross) has Blood Donor
(Android, iOS), which apart from schedule donations and
track donation history, also allows users to invite friends
on the ”lifesaving team.” Through this app, the American
Red Cross seeks to ”help meet the constant need for
blood.”
• Bloodline (a platform as well as an Android app), de-
veloped by alumni and students at the Indian Institute
of Technology of Madras, seeks to make a rather chaotic
system more effective. It allows users to both request and
donate blood: to the former, it only shows the blood truly
available and donors that are ready to give blood, to the
later, it only asks blood when there is a real demand of
their blood.
• While GiveBlood.IE (Android, iOS) by the Irish Blood
Transfusion Service (IBTS), allows for several function-
alities: location or date-based clinic finder, blood supply
levels indicator, information for the donor (eligibility and
IBTS information), notifications, and it allows to share
and to provide feedback.
• The last one is another blood donation app developed
in Catalonia: Donem Sang(Android, iOS), created by the
Catalan Federation of Blood Donors and developers USE-
IT. It localises where the nearest mobile or static blood
donation centre is, and stablishes the users’ route there.
ADVANCEMENT OF BLOOD DONATION APPLICATION, NOVEMBER 2015 2

It also provides advice and information on blood supplies

from different blood types.

B. Apache Cordova/PhoneGap
PhoneGap was donated to the Apache Software Foundation
(ASF) under the name Apache Cordova and hence is an
open source distribution of Apache Cordova. PhoneGap is an
open source framework for quickly building cross-platform
mobile apps using HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. Targeting
multiple mobile platforms requires knowledge of different
languages/frameworks; PhoneGap solves this by allowing the
developers to build mobile applications for different mobile
platforms using the already familiar standards-based web Fig. 1. Architecture diagram
technologies [1]. Apache Cordova/PhoneGap provides a set of
JavaScript APIs which allows the developers to access the na- platform. Plugins are written in each platforms native language
tive platform and devices features like camera, accelerometer, and development environment. If there isnt a plugin that does
contacts, etc using JavaScript. Basically there will be uniform what youd like to do with your device already, youll need to
platformspecific JavaScript libraries that can be invoked. This revert back to writing native code for each supported platform.
will in turn invoke the devicespecific native backing code for
those JavaScript libraries making possible the use of platform IV. G AMIFICATION D ESIGN
and device specific features. Since the apps are built without
Gamification is the process of game-thinking and game
any native code and using the standard web technology stack
mechanics to engage users and solve problems.
which are consistent across different mobile platforms, the
Gamification is the concept of applying game mechanics
basic codebase remains the same and should be portable to
and game design techniques to engage and motivate people
different mobile platforms with minimal to no changes [14].
to achieve their goals. Gamification taps into the basic desires
Of course, these apps are packaged as native apps for each
and needs of the users impulses which revolve around the idea
targeted platform using the platform specific SDKS and tool
of Status and Achievement.
chains and can be made available for installation from each
The research company Gartner predicts that by 2015, a
devices app store. UI framework such as jQuery Mobile or
gamified service for consumer goods marketing and customer
Dojo Mobile or Sencha Touch can also be used and combined
retention will become as important as Facebook, eBay, or
in the app development.
Amazon, and more than 70% of Global 2000 organizations
Advantages of PhoneGap:
will have at least one gamified application.
• Supports 7 Platforms (Apple, Android, Windows, Black-
berry, Symbian, Bada, webOS)
• Single Standards compliant UI language (HTML5, CSS,
A. Techniques
Javascript) Gamification techniques strive to leverage people’s natural
• OpenSource (Extending and developing plugins or mod- desires for Competition, Achievement, Status, Altruism, Com-
ifying is easy and accessible) munity Collaboration, and many more. Businesses can use
• Support Packages Available for Developers Gamification to drive desired user behaviors that are advanta-
• Developed by Nirobe (ex Novell developers and pur- geous to their brand. One common technique of Gamification
chased and supported by Adobe). is to increase engagement by rewarding users who accomplish
• Free (Open Source) desired tasks. Rewards such as Badges and Points are used
to elevate Status by showcasing the talents, expertise, and
III. C ORDOVA A RCHITECTURE accomplishments of users. Competition is another technique
that can be used in gamification. The desire to appear on
Apache Cordova/PhoneGap is really a hybrid development
the leaderboard drives players to complete more tasks, in turn
platform, neither being truly native, nor purely web-based. All
fueling deeper engagement.
layout and rendering is done via the Web View. See Fig.1

B. Game Mechanics Elements

PhoneGap strives to provide a common API set which is
typically unavailable to web applications, such as basic camera
access, device contacts, and sensors not already exposed in the
browser.
To develop PhoneGap applications, developers will create
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files in a local directory, much
like developing a static website. Extending the capabilities
of PhoneGap is via the use of plugins for each supported
1) Points
Points are important regardless of whether their ac-
cumulation is shared among players, or even between
the designer and the player. When you first consider a
point system, you might immediately think of a goal in
a sporting event, redeemable points in a video game,
or bonus points awarded to players for successfully
completing special tasks within a game. See Fig.2
ADVANCEMENT OF BLOOD DONATION APPLICATION, NOVEMBER 2015 3

Fig. 2. Lives as Points Fig. 3. Leaderboard of teams

2) Levels
In most games, levels indicate progress though they are
not as exclusive in this role as they once were. For
example, in the arcade game Ms. Pac-Man, levels are
clearly expressed by the color of the ghosts, the layout
of the maze, and the kind of fruit that loops around the
maze.
3) Leaderboards
The purpose of a leaderboard is to make simple com-
parisons. Unsurprisingly, most people dont need any
explanation when they encounter a leaderboard. By
default, we see an ordered list with a score beside
each name, and we understand that we are looking at
a ranking system. See Fig.3

4) Badges
Badges are an excellent way to encourage social pro-
motion of their products and services. Badges also mark
the completion of goals and the steady progress of play
within the system. See Fig.4

5) Challenges
Challenges and quests give players direction for what to
do within the world of the gamified experience. After all,
how much fun would a scavenger hunt be if you were
told to just go and find some stuff? Nothing specificjust Fig. 4. Badges and Rewards
ADVANCEMENT OF BLOOD DONATION APPLICATION, NOVEMBER 2015 4

stuff. There isnt much of a challenge there. There is zero [14] R.Vanitha,M.E, P.Divyarani, BCloud App: Blood Donor Application for
intrigue and an absolute lack of structure. Android Mobile International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and
Technology (IJIET), Vol. 2 Issue 1 February 2013.
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web design way of looking at onboarding (throw a
huge number of options at a player to make sure he
does something, anything) the game view is very, very
different.
7) Social Engagement loops
In a social engagement loop, a motivating emotion leads
to player re-engagement, which leads to a social call to
action, which flows to visible progress and/or rewards,
which loops back around to a motivating emotion.

V. C ONCLUSION
The conclusion is that we are going to develop a better
system which will help in better interaction between the blood
donor application and the blood donor. This application has a
wide usage and will encourage donors to donate blood. For
Advancement of Blood Donor Application we include Game
Mechanics to Motive Blood Donor to donate blood using
gamification. Also implementation for cross-platform mobile
applications using apache cordova, so that using single souce
code we can update application for all platforms at once.

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