BloodBeat
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BloodBeat is the winning project from MAB14’s 24 hour student contest. It was made by a group of students from the elite course ‘Urban Computing’ at Aarhus University.
The 20 submissions to the MAB24H student design competition were of very high quality; the responses to the design brief were highly interesting, creative, and thorough. The eight jury members from around the world were very impressed indeed with the work done within such a short period of time. It’s truly amazing what can happen within 24 hours!
However, after comparing the jury’s reviews of the final videos, the concepts, the notes, and the blogs, we now have a winner and a few honorable mentions! The winner of the mab24h 2014 edition is: LUOGOCOMUNE – have a look at their tumblr here.
The jury said that their response “combines relevant research methods, a clear purpose, interaction and nudging in a great package, and all for a good cause. Also, commendations must be made for not sticking to a screen-based outcome but instead letting the streets flod with blood, a darkly hilarious move.”
LUOGOCOMUNE’S OWN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
Blood donation is a critical element in insuring a functional healthcare system. According to the blood donors organization in Denmark 25.000 new donors are needed every year. Our vision is to enhance the awareness of this critical issue and through “BloodBeat” spark interest among people and hereby facilitate the recruitment of new blood donors for Aarhus Blood Bank.
The general concept of our project is to augment the Aarhus Blood Bank building which is placed in a rather remote location outside of town (at Skejby Hospital) and make it a vital and playful presence in the central square Lille Torv.
We facilitate this by using data from the Blood Bank (in particular the amount of blood donations and the amount of blood that flows out of the Bank to the Hospital system) in order to animate a “water play” at Lille Torv. So basicly, we get the Aarhus Blood Band input and then illustrate the output in Lille Torv in the center of Aarhus.
The water installation symbolizes the activity of the Bank and stands as a prop that attracts attention by inviting to playful interaction. Near the water installation we want to place a tall stand with a blood bag that can be squeezed in order to turn the color of the water in the installation to red. This interaction will be possible only as long as there is blood in the bag. Blood will be filled up in the bag when somebody that already is a blood donor passes by, thereby providing an indication of the amount of blood donors that circulate in town. The tracking of existing blood donors will be done by automatically registering the MAC address of their mobile phones when they are at the Blood Bank. The MAC address will then be identified by the system when the person passes by the installation in Lille Torv.
People who are not blood donors can also interact with the bag by scanning a QR code that directs them to a homepage where they can book an appointment to the Blood Bank in order to become donors. Every time an appointment is made new blood comes in the bag.
Our design process consisted of several theoretical discussions, brainstorm sessions, methods and doodles/drawings/sketching. We used academic theories as an active and vital part of framing the problem. During the brainstorm sessions we used the “HowMigthWe?” questions (HMW), this ended up being a creative problem-solving tool that can be applied to almost any ambitious and achievable challenge. To supplement this method we also use User Experience Goals (UEG), to emphasize the qualities/standards of the concepts which was generated from the HMW session.
