Blood Donation

BLOOD DONATION Creating

CAMPAIGNAWARENESS through

the

use

of

MULTIMEDIAMESSAGE SERVICE among

WORKING ADULTS

“Even the smallest act of caring for another person is like a drop of water -it will make ripples throughout the entire pond...�

Jessy and Bryan Matteo

Research ABSTRACT.

The demand for blood donation supply continues increasing from time to time due to the increasing demand for blood.

Today, insufficiency of blood supply is the major issue faced by many countries including Malaysia. This is mainly because of the public negative perception towards blood donation such as lethargy, weakness and increasing body weight. Besides that, fear of needles and other equipments used for the process during blood donation is one of the contributing factors of reluctance to donate blood by the public. This study tries to create public awareness in blood donation by using one of the latest mobile technologies, Multimedia Message Service (MMS).

MMS had been selected as the medium in this research due to the availability and eligibility of a mobile phone as a ‘musthave’ device these days. Mobile phone can consider as a necessity items which owned by everyone and the easiest access devices. In selecting the sample, this study focuses on selected working adults in Shah Alam because recent study conducted found that majority of the blood donors came from the younger generation. Few research methodologies had been used such as interviews, distribution of surveys, references on secondary data and evaluation from existing posters had been made by the researcher in completing and developing the final design. The final design of the MMS takes into consideration few techniques of design such as usage of colors, layout and font used. Besides that, the MMS also did highlight the benefit of blood donation in order to persuade people to donate blood.

The finding shows that attractive design of MMS with useful messages can help increase public awareness towards donating blood. With the high understanding by public towards blood donation, it can help increase the number of blood donors and reduce the problem of insufficient blood supply.

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Table of

CONTENT.

RESEARCH ABSTRACT 4.

INTRODUCTION 6.

LITERATURE REVIEW 17.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 26.

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT 38.

TESTING & EVALUATION 69.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 76.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 86.

BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES 88.

INTRO

DUCTION. Blood is the most important fluid and system that make every single living body functioning effectively.

Every day the needs of blood for life are everywhere.

Blood and its components are important in various situations. Person under special healing such as victim of burn, accident, premature child or serious diseases required sufficient supply intake of blood to heal their sickness, as highlighted in the media, the importance of blood donation became significance.

In Malaysia alone, our blood banks and general hospitals have been in need for blood donors due to its insufficient of blood supply. Many articles in our local newspapers and journals alarming on the insufficient blood supply such as on 12/6/2010, The Star stated that Penang Hospital’s blood bank indicator at Jalan Residensi had shown a red signal which indicated urgent need for more blood supply. The same situation happened in Hospital Melaka (Berita Harian, 28/8/2008), Hospital Raja Permaisuri, Perak (Utusan Malaysia, 27/8/2009), Tabung Darah Negara (Utusan Malaysia, 7/1/2009), Hospital Raja Permaisuri Zainab, Kota Bharu, Kelantan (Utusan Malaysia, 24/8/2009) and few other hospitals in Malaysia.

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In Malaysia alone, our blood banks and general hospitals have been in need for blood donors due to its insufficient of blood supply.

The need for blood is increasing from time to time.

One of the main reasons on the insufficient of blood stock was due to the shortage of voluntary blood donors. This problem is not faced by Malaysia alone, in India, many precious lives were lost for lack of substitution donations (Vishal Sharma, 2010). While in Thailand, their blood bank has been founded many years but there is still insufficient amount of blood for use. (Viroj Wiwanitkit, 2000).

In Malaysia, blood donations increased from 202,241 units in 1992 to 477,365 in 2006, less than 0.12% of Malaysian actually donate blood (Saifuddeen, 2002; Tan 2009). Although the number of blood donors keeps increasing each year, the percentage of blood donors is only 2% of the Malaysian population. National Blood Bank aimed at least 5% of Malaysian population participate in blood donation.

Negative perceptions on the effects such as lethargy, weakness and sudden increase in body weight, Malaysian people tend to reluctant to donate blood.

Fear of needle is one of the main factors they refuse to donate blood aside from insufficient time and difficulty in accessing blood donation programme (Harian Metro, 16 April 2010). Many campaigns had been done but the problem still have not resolved.

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Negative perceptions on the effects such as lethargy, weakness and sudden increase in body weight, Malaysian people tend to reluctant to donate blood.

Realizing this, this paper will use mobile technology, Multimedia Message Service (MMS) as a medium to create public awareness in donating blood by designing a creating and attractive MMS. Though several campaigns had been done before this but none of them had tried using this medium. Every individual, especially working adult owns at least one mobile phone which he or she carries everywhere. Therefore, through MMS, we allow people to participate in the campaign with the device that they have in their hand all the time.

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A W A R E N E S S. B l o o d D o n a t i o n.

C A M P A I G N.

Multimedia Messaging Service.

WORKING ADULT. The term awareness can be defined as the state of condition of being aware; having knowledge; consciousness and Blood Donation occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusion or made into medication by a process called fractionation. The fluid that circulates in the principal vascular system of human beings and other vertebrates, in humans consisting of plasma in which the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are suspended. Campaign is a term that conveys the meaning of An effort to make the public aware of the effects of a subject or a matter. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a standard service or method to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones that combines text, picture, video and music all in a neat package made for mobile phone.

Working Adult can be translated as an employee that contributes labor and expertise to endeavor of an employer and is usually hired to perform specific duties which are packaged into a job.

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With the increasing number of accidents coupled with rise in diseases and sickness suffered by human, as surfaced in the media, the importance of blood donation became significant. Dr. Steffen Groth, Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), 2005 mentioned that a reliable supply of safe blood is essential for scaling up health at several levels, particularly for women and children. For instance, 70% of all blood transfusions in Africa are given to children with severe anemia due to malaria, which is about one in five of all childhood deaths in Africa. (WBDD report 2005, WHO). Malaysian’s blood banks have been in need for any blood donors due to its insufficient blood in the bank. An article wrote

by Sylvia Looi, The Star, 13 August 2010 stated that, Blood Bank liaison officer, En. Khairul Anuar Mohd Nor said that hospital in Malaysia needs more donor to replenish stock especially festive seasons such as Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, Chinese New Year and other public holidays due to the increasing number of road accidents which contribute to an increase in the number of blood demand. This is also supported by Mr. Reginald T. Periera, Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Association of Hospital.

With the increasing number of accidents coupled with rise in diseases and sickness suffered by human, as surfaced in the media, the importance of blood donation became significant.

As affirmed by Deputy Director of the National Blood Centre (NBC) Dr Faraizah Abdul Karim, during festive season in 2002, there were only around 450 units of blood available in the centre which has the capacity to hold up to 5,000 units. However, statistic in Klang Valley alone requires having 1,200 to 1,500 units of blood. Therefore, to cater this demand, the National Blood Centre (NBC) actually requires collecting around 300 blood donors every day.

In Malaysian Red Cross Society official website (www.redcrescent.org.my), the major contributors for the shortage of blood supply actually come from Malaysian citizen’s mentality. Most of them reluctant to donate blood because of phobia and fear of needles and equipments used during blood donation.

This is agreed by Dr. Irfan Mohamad in Berita Harian’s atricle dated 16 June 2010. However he added few other reasons including lack of time to go for any blood donation programme, on medication and taking medicine, afraid of any effects and complications after donating blood, dishonest and does not have sense of guilty and responsibility as a citizen.

He suggested that influential people such as artists and politicians can attract people to donate blood.

The campaigns were normally made via wall posters, internet, collaboration with mass media and management of shopping malls and non-governmental organizations. Besides that latest campaign was done using mobile bus. Even many campaigns had been done but none of them have tried using MMS. In The Star Paper dated 12 January 2009, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai informed that 80% of blood supply came from mobile donation campaigns via short service message (SMS).

Therefore, this research focuses on finding a different method of awareness on blood donation programme via MMS, to convince public to participate in blood donation programme.

Therefore this proposal is to study and create different method of awareness on blood donation programme by using the latest mobile technology, Multimedia Message Service (MMS) with attractive pictures as a method of campaigns to convince public to participate in blood donation programme.

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From this research we can identify the factors why people are reluctant to donate blood and to create design picture MMS with intention to increase public awareness to go for blood donation. It is hoped that with the increase in blood donors, it can minimize the causes of reluctance in donating blood especially to those who are afraid of needles and negative effects of blood donations.

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The objectives of the research study are; a) to study why people are reluctant to donate blood, b) to create an MMS picture that can encourage/motivate people to donate blood and c) to examine either visual communication or attractive pictures can create an awareness/initiative among member of the public towards donating blood. The aim of this research is to create high understanding of public awareness about donating blood.

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Research QUESTION.

Can attractive picture design along with text sending via MMS create awareness of blood donation?

A hypothesis can be defined as a testable statement of the relationship between variables. In this paper, the selected hypothesis is by using if-then statement.

“If attractive MMS can be designed well, then it can increase the awareness in blood donation.�

The above testable statement measures the effectiveness of sending attractive MMS that can increase the awareness in donating blood. It is expected that with great design of MMS with the message to perused people to go for blood donation, it can attract those recipients to willingly donate blood.

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Literature REVIEW.

Blood consists of red-colored liquid that flows continuously in our body circulation system and is essential for our body processes. Our bodies contain fluid called plasma, which are poised cellular elements. There are three types of blood cells known as red blood cells (RBC’s), white blood (WBC’s) cells and tiny pallet. It is important to keep the volume of blood in the body at optimum level, and any detected in the shape of constituents of red blood cell, the function unit of blood, will disrupt the body systems and can be fatal if left untreated. There are no scientific advancement to date that can create substitute for blood components or any kind of artificial blood, so fresh blood will only come in from blood donors.

Few limitations had been encountered by the researcher during finalizing this research. One of the problems is the type of mobile phone used by respondents where some of them use phones without MMS services. Due to the time constrain, the researcher finalized this research until feedbacks were received from respondents about the MMS design without knowing if they really go to donate blood.

On the other hand, the delimitation was on the designing and usage of MMS as a medium of creating public awareness where previously no research has been done and most of the campaigns were done via wall posters. Another delimitation is on the respondents that have ample of time to answer the questionnaires and be briefed about the MMS during conduct pre-test and post test. In future, with more time given and collaboration with NBC, it is hoped that this study could get more results and ensuring the process up to the stage where the public really go and donate blood.

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Dr. Roshida Hassan, Director from National Blood Bank shared that when we donate blood, we remove some of the old blood cells that are less efficient in carrying oxygen, and our bone marrow will be prompted to produce new ones. The fresh supply of red blood cells will then be able to supply adequate oxygen to body tissues, leaving the donor feeling refreshed and more energetic. Most regular blood donors are able to share that they actually feel healthier and more energetic after donating blood.

“When we donate blood, we remove some of the old blood cells that are less efficient in carrying oxygen, and our bone marrow will be prompted to produce new ones.”

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The process of blood donor selection is designed to ensure that the donation does not cause harm to the donors.

In Hospital University Sains Malaysia (HUSM), blood donors are generally allowed to donate blood every three months. They must be between 18 to 55 years old with weight at least 45 kg and they should be generally healthy. (Norashikin et al, 2006). The blood donor will receive a “red book” that records credit for every blood donation and privileges for hospital services will be awarded to the frequent blood donor. There were also promotion and collaboration with few hotels on this blood donation campaign as per stated in Utusan Malaysia, 7/1/2010, Holiday Villa and Suites Subang gave a complementary dinner buffet voucher for voluntarily blood donors. In Malaysia, the blood donation programme is will be handled by National Blood Centre.

Idea of getting more blood donors through campaign had been actively found. It was realized even then that the Blood Bank could not depend on random donors and introduced the mobile van. Generally, the blood can be used within 35 days (Pn. Rahimah Jihan, Secretary of Red Cross Society JCorp, 2009).

Currently, blood donation campaign are held through internet, social websites such as Facebook, wall posters, organizer’s official website, verbally words from one people to another and some of them using SMS.

The mobile phone is one of the most successful new technologies of the past two decades (Nyiri, 2003). The significant growth of Malaysian citizens in using the mobile phone has proved that mobile phone today is a necessity item instead of luxury item where everybody could afford to buy and own it.

Currently, blood donation campaign are held through internet, social websites such as Facebook, wall posters, organizer’s official website, verbally words from one people to another and some of them using SMS. 19

In addition to high rates of ownership by users, users typically keep their mobiles at hand or in-the-pocket and the majority of the time with access to it. (CereijoRoibas & Arnedillo-Sanchez, 2002). It had been a necessity items that need to have by each individual nowadays. Handphone User Survey done by Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission in 2005 showed that nearly 80% Malaysian between 20 to 49 years used or owned at least one mobile phone (Hazrina Hassan, Mohd Hairul Nizam Md Nasir, 2006).

Abdul Karim, Darus and Hussin (2006) found that even young generation and school children easily found owned at least one mobile phone. This supported with a research by Poh Yen Ng et all where they found that the students and younger generation are familiar with application available in the mobile phone. This shows that even younger generation owned a mobile phone, this gadget will meant lots more to the working adult.

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Besides as a medium of communication, the mobile phone is also very useful to older people to develop and maintain social relationship as well as to provide sense of security and safety by giving them a mobile phone to easily contact their relatives anytime especially in case of emergencies. (H. Hassan et all). The usage of mobile phone now has become widespread among people who live in the remote areas. They also are have connection and enjoy all the benefits as others living in the city. (Minges, 2001).

MMS was first developed as a standard way to send messages that includes multimedia content to and from mobile phones. Generally MMS can be used to send videos, audios, pictures from one mobile phone to another phone directly. It is popular used as picture messaging and now it has been used widely in advertising by some giant companies and it is also growing widely for many other purposes such as mobile learning, streaming and telemedicine. In Ireland, mobile technology is used to help fighting against terrorism by sending the photo of criminal suspect to the law enforcement (A. Farshid Ghyasi et all)

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By creating an attractive MMS and sending it to select respondent can determine whether MMS can be one of the effective ways in blood donation campaign which indirectly can increase the number of donors. MMS is an ideal medium of advertising blood donation campaign because it is ‘freeto-receive’ where the recipients will not be charged upon receiving MMS from the sender.

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The campaign using MMS has been widely used in some giant companies in western with the purposed to promote their product. Kellogg Company, the world leading manufacturer of cereal and convenience foods such as cookies, cracker and toaster pastries promoted their “The Big Bake” campaign in 2009 running all across Britain and Ireland by sending MMS to consumers. According to Kellogg Co.’s Managing director for Mediaburst, Manchester, England, Mr. Gary Bary, “It’s collaborative, by using mobile, it takes the campaign to a broader audience and provides a wider response mechanism for people to enter, meaning people can enter using the mechanism that suits them best”.

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“It’s collaborative, by using mobile, it takes the campaign to a broader audience and provides a wider response mechanism for people to enter, meaning people can enter using the mechanism that suits them best.”

- GARY BARY The other well-known company using MMS in its campaign promotion comes from the automotive industry, BMW. According to Marc Mielau, Innovation Manager for Mobile Marketing at BMW, BMW turned approximately $60k in MMS advertisement and obtained $45M.

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Research METHO DOLOGY. This section presents an overview on methodology used in this research. As indicated in earlier chapters, this research intends to create awareness about blood donation by using MMS. Before creation and designing the MMS, few information need to establish such as reasons people do not go for blood donation and study on the previous method in campaigning blood donation. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this research to obtain such information and few questionnaires and online survey had been distributed.

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Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this research to obtain such information and few questionnaires and online survey had been distributed.

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For qualitative information, data gathering from research journals, newspaper cuttings and pamphlets were extracted. From this secondary data, the researcher gathers information about reasons people feel reluctant to donate blood and the usage of MMS.

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INTERVIEW 1.

Public at Karangkraf Book Fair To obtain opinions about blood donation from the public.

INTERVIEW 2.

NATIONAL BLOOD BANK To obtain more information and understanding about blood donation in Malaysia.

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INTERVIEW 3.

SEDANIA GROUP To brief on type of MMS and estimate development cost from the MMS provider in Malaysia.

Interviews had been conducted face-to-face with few interviewees in order to reach the objectives of this research. Interviews were conducted in versatile and effective method of communication by quick response.

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Interview with public found that most of them reluctant to donate blood because fear of the needle and equipments used during blood donation. Mr. Sri Tharan, the National Blood Bank representative mentioned that Malaysia also faces insufficient blood supply, just the same problem faced by the other countries in the world.

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For the quantitative information, primary data had been collected by using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to respondents. Cohen (1989) defines a questionnaire as a self-report instrument used for gathering information about variables of interest to an investigation.

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“Questionnaire can help the researcher to analyse easier the data since the responses can be directly compared and easily aggravated (Patton, 1990), many questions can be answered in a short time.�

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From the surveys, we managed to obtain important information that can be used to start the design of the MMS such as the reasons people do not go for blood donation because of the fear of the needle. The other good information was that most of the respondents agreed that mobile phone is a good medium in to communicate and makes campaign. From the review of the posters by NBC, the researchers also get the concept and ideas on the layout and types of design that will be used to create MMS. After designing the MMS, the researchers conducted a pre-test by distributing 44 questionnaires to selective sample at 3 giant companies in Shah Alam which are Ultimate Print, subsidiary of Kumpulan Karangkraf (17 respondents), Toyota (15 respondents) and DRBHICOM (34 respondents). From the post test, the MMS had been re-designed for final. The same respondents were used for post-test. Refer to Appendix 1 to 5 for the questionnaires and summary results. The process of design development and test result will be discussed in Design & Development and Testing & Evaluation.

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Design&

DEVELOPMENT. This chapter will explain the detail reporting on the design approach that had been had adopted during this design development and the justification and decision that had been undertaken during the design process

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A study done by Judith Holdersha et al, shows that younger people demonstrated greater willingness to donate blood compared to older people.

A study done by Judith Holdersha et al, shows that younger people demonstrated greater willingness to donate blood compared to older people. The young generation can control the factors that help or hinder their abilities to donate blood and knew the importance of donating blood. Due to the awareness shown by youngster, this study want tried to look from different perspective and target audience that are working adult.

Statistic shows that Selangor has the most number of working adult and working as a technician. Since most of them work at factory, the researcher focused at Shah Alam area and went to 3 giant companies in Shah Alam which are Karangkraf, DRB-HICOM and Toyota.

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Before preparing the sketches, researcher collects information about blood donation and issues as well as MMS. In obtaining that information, qualitative and quantitative method had been used.

Referring to Research Methodology section on the questionnaires distributed, the first questionnaire is to get information about blood donation and MMS. The questionnaire had been distributed to 143 people and researcher managed to collect 130 responses. The questionnaire had been divided into two sections - the first section exploring the experience of the respondents in donating the blood donation (if any) and found/ discovered reasons why people reluctant to donate blood. The second section explored the usage and exposure of MMS to the respondents to see whether they are frequents users of MMS. Opinions from them on the usage of MMS as a medium to create awareness any blood donation programme were gathered.

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Results from questionnaires shows that most of the respondents reluctant to donate blood because afraid of the needle.

Another interview was conducted randomly to working adult in getting the justification. Most of the interviewees have the same opinion on the needle because of the size, hygiene and negative effect from the needle used.

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The decision to use MMS as a medium to create awareness had been proven from the results of questionnaires that had been distributed to 130 respondents. 77% suggested that mobile phone is the most effective way in promoting and campaigning .

The idea of using MMS was because of availability and items that must-have by every individual and the usages of the MMS were very successful especially in western countries. BMW and Nestle are the examples. Therefore, the researches decide to use MMS in this research.

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THE MOST ATTRACTIVE POSTER.

Online survey using multiple choice questions had been posted in Facebook for three days and 49 respondents were obtained. From the online survey, most of the respondents agreed that Poster 3 is attractive and can increase the awareness towards blood donation and is the least fear poster. This may due to

the happy mode illustration used in the poster. For color, most of the respondents voted red, white, blue, yellow and black to be used in the poster.

In creating an MMS picture, it started with evaluating on poster by the Blood Bank Centre. 6 posters on blood donation and 1 poster for transfusion had been evaluated by via two methods which were (1) via online survey and (2) self-evaluation using Principle of Design.

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THE LEAST PREFERRED & MOST FEARED POSTER.

THE MOST PREFERRED POSTER.

Poster 1 is mostly preferred by the respondents as it is easy to read as it only consists of texts, with minimal picture.

The least preferred and most feared poster is poster 7 where it shown the real equipment used for blood donation. From the result, the researcher uses the idea in his design.

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The self-evaluation done based on the Principle of Design which evaluates the size, type, headline, information, logo, font, language, image, body text, layout, eye movements and color used in the posters

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LAYOUT AND FORMAT.

All posters use Malay language and hard-sell approach that is balance dominated type with unattractive wordings for the headline. For body texts, the information such as criteria of donor, tagline, invitation, and statement are used to attract people donating blood. Most of the posters use photography techniques for the images such as human models whereas some of them used illustrations. The NBC logo was placed at the bottom of each poster. In terms of colors selection, the designer used red, white, blue yellow and black to make the posters look attractive. While for the font, San Serif is used with half full spacing. Information such as venue, date, time and email also been disclosed in the posters.

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DESIGN ELEMENTS AND EYE MOVEMENTS. To evaluate the design elements, all posters had been divided into 3 views (1) top view, (2) center view and (3) bottom view. Review found that all of the posters put the headline topics at the top view. At the center view of the poster, items such as body text, image and donor criteria are found while at the bottom of the poster, they put the logo of NBC, tagline and information such as date, venue, time of blood donation campaign.

Clay’s Theory of Hierarchy describes the eye movement techniques stated that “subconscious directional cues tell your eyes where to go next. This keeps the design fluid and static free”. Researcher found that most of the posters did not have a focus eye movement but most of them have a complicated eye movement for the evaluation result.

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From the evaluation result as above, the researcher considered all the elements of designing and created his own design.

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DESIGN

ONE. SUPERHERO.

The idea of superhero was taken from a newspaper clipping in Kosmo, 23 September 2011 which stated that ‘a drop of blood can save life’ and titled the blood donor as a ‘silence hero’. Researcher used technician as a model as the targeted population were more on technical skill workers.

There were 3 MMSes had been designed with different messages and context such as follows:

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DESIGN

TWO. HEART.

According to Ministry of Health Malaysia, 1 in 6 of all death in Government Hospitals is due to heart disease. Therefore, the second sketch design focuses on protecting the heart. This MMS uses the concept of informing the benefits individual will get from donating blood.

DESIGN

THREE. NEEDLE.

The idea behind using needle as a main character obtained from information from individual themselves either through interview or questionnaires. The main reason people reluctant to do blood donation because fear of the needle. In changing their perceptions towards it, the researcher highlighted that the needle doesn’t hurt to an individual and it was safe to be used because it is sterile and single use online for each person. Another concept that was used in this MMS was the question and answer script. With this method the message will be much easier to understand.

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3 sketches MMS had been evaluated using the same method and matched with the results of NBC’s posters evaluation earlier. The evaluation consists of the font size, font type, image, body text, information, color, layout, and element and eye movement.

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Few types of mobile phone had been selected to test the display of the designed MMS capture in the mobile phone. Evaluation on various types of mobile phone had been done through the study. Refer Appendix 13 for the application design on mobile phone.

In this research, researcher used Nokia N82 as a testable unit and forwarded the MMS during pre-test and post test to several types of mobile phone owned by respondents such HTC, LG, Blackberry, Sony Ericson, iPhone and few others.

Result found that all MMS can be captured and displayed in any types of mobile phone.

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Testing&

EVALUATION. This chapter will describe two stages of tests that had been done which are the (1) pre-test and (2) post test. Both test were done by sending the MMS to the recipients distributed questionnaires that required opinion about the designed MMS from.

Each MMS costs RM0.50. This chapter will elaborate both tests processes.

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PRE TEST.

Pre-test had been conducted on 2 December 2011. The researcher went to Toyota, Ultimed Prime, a subsidiary of Karangkraf and DRB-HICOM in Shah Alam to conduct the pre-test.

During the session, questionnaires which acquire opinion on the most suitable and attractive MMS that can be used to create awareness in blood donation programme have been distributed. The sessions started with introduction and briefing on the research of the study, sending out the MMS, and distribution of the questionnaires.

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For the final end product

MMS 2 & MMS 3 HAS BEEN SELECTED. There were respondents opines MMS 3 also can be selected especially to create the awareness for young generation. Majority of them said that MMS 3 is more relaxed, friendly and can make less afraid to the needle. It might be because of selection using illustration concept. As a result, researcher has combined the ideas of MMS 2 and MMS 3 as the final design of his MMS.

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POST TEST.

The researcher combines the ideas of MMS 2 and MMS 3 and the evaluation of the final design has been done.

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Another session with previous respondent had been done in order to get the result for the post test. This final test also had been conducted at the same companies visited by researcher during pre-test. The MMS was sent a day earlier before the visit to the respective companies. The post test was conducted with the briefing on the objective of the post-test; introducing the last design and final distribution of questionnaires. The questionnaires consist of 9 questions that relating to the final designed of the MMS and respondents need to answer on the spot. Result from the questionnaires and discussion of the finding will be further elaborated in the next chapter.

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Discussion of

FINDINGS. This chapter will discuss result from post-test on the final design that had been conducted on 23 September 2011 among 56 respondents.

There are 9 questions using Linkert Scale from (5) strongly agreed to (1) strongly disagreed.

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29% from the respondents are aware that by donating blood it can protect the heart.

96%

from the respondents think that the MMS is really informative.

43% of the respondents are less fear to the needles after receiving the MMS.

96% of the respondents opine that the MMS is really informative especially with the information on heart protection and safe in using the needle during blood donation process. It makes 43% of the respondents less fear to the needle after receiving it.

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In terms of creating public awareness, 90% respondents agreed that this MMS can create public awareness towards blood donation while 68% thought that this MMS can reduce the problem of insufficient blood supply in our country.

There are still 25% respondents reluctant to donate blood.

Although majority of them like the MMS, there are still 25% respondents reluctant to donate blood. However, 75% respondents strongly agree and agree to donate blood. 89% of them said that they will forward the MMS to their family and friends. This shows that attractive and informative MMS can be a good medium in creating public awareness to donate blood.

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Majority of respondents felt that the concept, font, choices of words and colors used in the MMS are attractive. The use of red color which represents blood together with it font size and type, sans serif and Century Gothic Bold, can easily attract people and the message was successfully delivered

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The result shows a significant finding as per hypothesis which with attractive design as well as good message and creative MMS, it can create awareness of public in donating blood.

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Many new knowledge and experiences gained by researcher from this study starting from searching reasons why people reluctant to donate blood until the creating of MMS in order to attract awareness in blood donation. Researcher learnt that it is really hard to persuade people to change their negative perception towards blood donation. However, by creating an attractive design, researcher found that it can somehow help to reduce the negative perception especially by using MMS.

Previous researchers found that most of the people reluctant to donate blood because of their attitudes and negative perceptions. This research however found that with positive perception together with the benefit given (for example, donating blood can protect heart), can help to change the attitude of some individuals and make them voluntarily go for blood donation. This has been proven by a number of people that have never donated blood have now agreed to go for blood donating after receiving the MMS.

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RECOMMENDATION.

Conclusion & With the development of awareness, it is hoped that the issues on insufficient number of blood supply in Malaysia and globally can be reduced. It has become the researcher’s wish that more people will voluntarily go for blood donation to help those in need.

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To change the negative perception of an individual by creating attractive MMS is very challenging. This study found that a majority of the people reluctant to donate blood was because they were afraid of the needle and equipment used for blood donation process, afraid of the cleanliness of the needles which they believe could lead to other sickness, afraid of gaining weight and other reasons such as lack of time and not knowing where to donate blood. The MMS was designed with an objective to create awareness and encourage people to donate blood. The MMS was designed based on few study methods and processes such as references from previous studies, evaluations that had been done through posters available and surveys. The one layer MMS had been created by using the color as per requested by respondents and informative messages were inserted to attract and create public awareness in donating blood.

From this research, it can be concluded that MMS is one of the easiest, cheapest and fastest methods in promoting and creating awareness of public in promoting blood donation campaign besides the traditional way of using wall posters, blogs, mobile van and others. This is one of the push advertising strategic that had been used lately that can save amount of money, time and a very convenience way in promotion especially because of the portable size of the device and its availability of the mobile phone as a necessity item that should have by every individual. The test carried out on 56 working adults showed that 90% of them agreed that the design of an MMS could help create awareness in donating blood while 75% respondents would surely go for blood donation if given the chance.

With the development of awareness, it is hoped that the issues on insufficient number of blood supply in Malaysia and globally can be reduced. It has become the researcher’s wish that more people will voluntarily go for blood donation to help those in need.

MMS can be a new approach to campaigning blood donation programme besides using posters and mobile van. Besides it, with a huge budget, campaign through television or radio can be replaced and will also be applicable with this new usage of new mobile technology. However, the message must include the advantages and benefits of donating blood especially those that relate to health.

Each MMS costs RM0.50 by using own mobile phone. However, the telephone provider will only charge RM0.30. Due to time constrains and limited samplings, the researcher only used his own mobile phone to test the design. For future research, if there is a chance of collaboration with NBC or any other government agencies, the samplings can be distributed the entire community.

This research can be a guideline for future researchers/designer to extend scope of this project which may be involved collaboration with NBC to ensure the awareness can be developed until the respondents really go for blood donation. The collaboration also can be effective especially the map of the nearest venue for blood donation is included in the message. This will increase the awareness of the public in the issue of insufficient blood supply

The blood donation programme should be made aware and known to the young generation in order to ward off the fear of the needles, at once encourage them to go donate blood since they were young.

The design of blood donation can be made using creative posters, education, games and toys. By setting this mentality, it hoped that when they become an adult in 10 years time, they will be ready to voluntarily donate blood. This will create a healthy citizen and leads to a good nation.

The researcher found that the blood donation programme should be made aware and known to the young generation in order to ward off the fear of the needles, at once encourage them to go donate blood since they were young. The design of blood donation can be made using creative posters, education, games and toys. By setting this mentality, it hoped that when they become an adult in 10 years time, they will be ready to voluntarily donate blood. This will create a healthy citizen and leads to a good nation.

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“For it is in giving that we receive.�

St. Francis of Assisi