KRISTEN DOMENICO

Donor Plus has generated $15.6 M in revenue to date
Nearly 65K successful appointments scheduled through the app
55% registration-to-booking conversion, reflecting reduced friction and clearer CTAs
Ongoing iteration continues to drive adoption and performance

The Opportunity

Donor Plus modernized blood donation by removing friction from outdated tools and meeting mobile-first donors where they are. I led discovery through delivery, partnering closely with engineering and QA to design a scalable, human-centered mobile experience that educates donors and simplifies action. Since launching in April 2025, Donor Plus has generated $10.5M+ in revenue, achieved a 45.2% registration-to-booking conversion, and scaled across all five NYBC divisions.

Two Core Design Pillars

Pillar 1 — Findability

• Designed around intuitive information architecture and familiar mental models
• Used guided patterns (wizards, checklists) to simplify complex flows
• Clear, approachable language and clean visual hierarchy
• Reduced friction without overwhelming users

Goal

• Make key actions obvious
• Make the path to donating effortless

Pillar 2 — Education

• Designed education to feel supportive, not overwhelming
• Informed by research and analytics
• Used progressive disclosure to surface information at the right time

Goal

• Build donor confidence
• Support informed decisions without adding friction

Guiding donors with the right info, right when they need it

Providing the right information at the right time through progressive information is the key in empowering our customers to get value out of their relationship with NY Blood, and the entire donation process.

Research: Donor Readiness for Mobile Experiences

Mobile as the Primary Path to Donor Trust

These findings validate mobile as a primary engagement channel—not a secondary touchpoint—especially for younger and digitally native donors. Designing clear, progressive information within a mobile experience directly supports donor confidence, retention, and follow-through.

Behavior-Informed Personas

Data-Driven Personas

• Partnered with Analytics to translate behavioral, demographic, and engagement data into personas
• Grounded design decisions in real donor behavior

Persona Focus (Early Phase)

• Gen Z Emerging Donors — high-growth segment
• Senior Role-Model Donors — high-retention segment

Impact

• Anchored early decisions around engagement, motivation, and information delivery
• Established a foundation that later scaled to 12 AI-driven personas for personalization

Gen Z Emerging Donors (15%)

• Mobile-first and early in their donor journey
• Motivated by visibility, progress, and feedback
• Access drops after school-based drives end

Design Focus

• Clear guidance and fast mobile scheduling
• Streaks, achievements, and progress tracking
• Social sharing to maintain momentum and drive repeat donations

Senior Role-Model Donors (4%)

• Long-term, highly committed donors
• Prefer fixed donation sites and reliable experiences
• Engagement remains high through advocacy and referrals

Design Focus

• Clarity, consistency, and trust
• Respect for experience over gamification
• Support for mentorship and platelet advocacy

Discovery Research to Inform Donor Plus

Early Discovery Research

• Validated the need for a dedicated Donor App MVP
• Focused on donor motivations, barriers, and expectations

Method

• Questionnaire sent to donors and non-donors
• ~50 participants
• Mix of in-person research and remote survey
• Additional outreach to UCLA students via UX intern

Key Outcomes

• Clear, consistent patterns across participants
• Identified core barriers and feature expectations
• Insights directly informed product direction and MVP scope

*Mobile app scheduling was preferred by over 70% of participants.

*Clearer guidance could increase donation intent for 65% of non-donors.

User Flows: Booking an Appointment

Designed flexible booking flows that reduce friction and adapt to different donor behaviors—prioritizing speed, clarity, and completion. Donors can book through a guided step-by-step flow, a one-screen map experience, or personalized center recommendations. The result: fewer clicks, lower cognitive load, faster repeat bookings, and a strong foundation for mid-fidelity wireframes.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Created low-fidelity wireframes grounded in research, analytics, personas, and journey mapping, and shaped in close partnership with business and product stakeholders. The concepts focused on real-world mobile feasibility while exploring core flows like map-based discovery, site details, booking, earned badges, and donation tracking.

Building the Donor Plus Visual Language

Led end-to-end UI design for Donor Plus, creating a cohesive visual system from the ground up. Designed the logo, color palette, accessible typography, and minimal iconography to ensure clarity, readability, and scannability. Result: a consistent, accessible UI that scales across mid- and high-fidelity designs.

Designed a high-fidelity UI and reusable component system that reduced friction, improved conversion, and scaled donor engagement through explore-first flows, contextual education, and lightweight motivation features.

High-Fidelity Design & Impact

Log in with your code to get started and earn your newcomer badge, or explore the app with limited access

“Explore” mode gives donors limited access while encouraging them to book and attend a donation.

The map leverages geolocation to surface nearby drives and donor centers, with quick actions to book or navigate.

I designed the Education section to support one of the COO’s primary goals and a core product pillar: helping people understand blood donation, how the process works, and why it matters. Given the amount of information involved, we worked closely with doctors to ensure medical accuracy and clear, approachable language.

Badge design and achievement criteria were developed in collaboration with Marketing, the Product Owner, and Brand. The system supports social sharing to reinforce milestones and donor engagement.

• Donation Tracker: visibility from appointment through impact
• Gratitude Moments: enable donors to thank those who donated to them

What’s Next? (2026)

Donor Center Analytics Hub

• Centralized platform for donation activity and performance data
• Single source of truth for donor analytics and engagement

Cross-Team Enablement

• Marketing: targeted outreach across email and channels
• Data Science: persona-based algorithms powering personalized messaging at scale

Looking Ahead (2026)

• In-house AI assistant for donors, staff, and internal teams
• Real-time insights and guidance to support engagement and operations

• Close engineering collaboration led to faster iteration and stronger product ideas
• Valuable UX insights can come from outside traditional design roles

• User-first judgment must be protected
• Technical constraints don’t always equal impossibility
• Revisiting assumptions often uncovered better solutions

• Involve the right stakeholders earlier
• Late review of the Donation Tracker surfaced unresolved edge cases and pushed launch to a 2026 fast follow

• Pressure-test complex, high-impact features early
• Early alignment reduces rework and protects engineering investment

Key Learnings