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

Background

Problem & Opportunity

• Blood donation saves lives, but outdated tools created friction for donors
• Lack of a true mobile app especially impacted younger, mobile-first audiences

Solution

• Donor Plus was built to remove friction, educate donors, and simplify action
• Designed to turn a single decision into a lifesaving moment

Key Contributions

• Led discovery, research, and journey definition to design scalable, human-centered experiences
• Partnered closely with engineering and QA to ensure feasibility, accessibility, and accurate implementation

Impact

• Shipped and scaled Donor Plus (live since April 2025)
• $10.5M+ revenue generated to date and growing
• 45.2% registration-to-booking conversion
• Rolled out across all 5 NYBC divisions

Understanding the Problem

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

Why This Matters

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.

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

User Journies: Registration & Onboarding Trendsetting Gen Z

This touchpoint represents a Gen Z donor’s first interaction with Donor Plus. The goal is to reduce friction, clearly explain the app’s purpose, and guide donors through account setup with confidence.

Focus

Clear call-to-action to register
Simple, guided onboarding
Early explanation of value and impact

Outcome

Snackable, progressive information helps Gen Z donors quickly understand the app, feel confident completing setup, and stay motivated to take action.

Senior Role Models

This touchpoint represents a senior donor’s first interaction with Donor Plus. The goal is to build trust, clearly explain the app’s purpose, and ensure the experience feels familiar, accessible, and reliable.

Focus

Clear, reassuring registration flow
Simple explanation of the app’s value
Familiar onboarding aligned with in-person donation processes

Outcome

Clear, accessible guidance helps senior donors feel confident using the app, trust that it reflects the donation process they already know, and continue donating without disruption.

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

Booking Flows Designed to Reduce Friction

• Created multiple booking paths to support different donor behaviors
• All flows optimize for speed, clarity, and completion

Three Entry Paths

• Guided booking: Homepage CTA with step-by-step wizard for new or infrequent donors
• Map booking: Select a nearby location, view times, and confirm on one screen
• Recommended centers: Personalized suggestions based on history, location, and real-time availability

Result

• Fewer clicks and lower cognitive load
• Faster booking for repeat donors
• Strong foundation for mid-fidelity wireframes

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

• Informed by discovery research, analytics, personas, and journey mapping
• Partnered closely with business and the product owner to translate insights into concepts
• Grounded in real-world mobile app experience to ensure feasibility

Core Flows Explored

• Map-based location discovery
• Donation site details
• Appointment booking
• Earned badges
• Donation activity tracking

UI Design & Visual System

UI System & Visual Language

• Led end-to-end UI design for Donor Plus
• Defined the visual system from the ground up

What I Designed

• Logo and brand mark
• Color system optimized for clarity, care, and urgency
• Accessible typography for mobile readability
• Minimal iconography to improve scannability and reduce cognitive load

Outcome

• Cohesive, accessible UI foundation
• Scaled consistently across mid- and high-fidelity designs

High-Fidelity Design & Impact

High-Fidelity Design & Component System

• Translated product vision into high-fidelity designs
• Built a reusable component system (modals, CTAs, cards, dropdowns)
• Enabled consistent engineering implementation and reduced UI rework

Conversion & Engagement

• Designed an “explore-first” experience (browse before sign-up)
• Required authentication only at booking to align with user intent
• Increased conversion by lowering upfront friction

Donor Engagement

• Designed scalable engagement system (badges, streaks, history)
• Partnered with engineering on social sharing support
• Added reminders and celebratory booking moments to drive follow-through

Education as UX

• Embedded contextual education throughout core flows
• Supported informed decisions without disrupting booking

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

Donor Center Analytics Hub

Key Learnings

• 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

KRISTEN DOMENICO

Wins & Measurable Impact

Background

Understanding the Problem

Two Core Design Pillars

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

Research: Donor Readiness for Mobile Experiences

Why This Matters

Personas

Gen Z Emerging Donors (15%)

Senior Role-Model Donors (4%)

User Journies: Registration & Onboarding Trendsetting Gen Z

Senior Role Models

Discovery Research to Inform Donor Plus

User Flows: Booking an Appointment

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

UI Design & Visual System

High-Fidelity Design & Impact

Key Learnings

kristenldomenico@gmail.com