UNASSIGNED: Given the current shortage of blood donors in the USA, researchers have tried to identify different strategies to attract more young people and spread the voice of donors\' needs.
UNASSIGNED: A systematic literature review is conducted to investigate the current mobile applications used to track, attract, and retain donors. We also provide some preliminary results of a pilot study, based on a cross-sectional survey of 952 participants (aged 18 to 39), about the willingness of donors to use mobile apps as tools for encouraging blood donation. The data is collected using a 20-item questionnaire, which includes four constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior to assess the respondents\' willingness to donate blood. A range of statistical techniques, including univariate analysis, multivariate analysis, and structural equation modeling, were utilized to analyze the collected data.
UNASSIGNED: The 37 research articles, selected after applying several exclusion criteria, are classified into five main categories. The majority of the research (44.1%) is about using mobile apps to find blood donors and blood centers, followed by publications on using mobile apps to encourage blood donation (26.4%) and to recruit blood donors (14.7%). The remaining studies are about retaining blood donors (8.8%) and using mobile apps for scheduling donations (5.8%). Our pilot case study suggests that 73% of participants have favorable perceptions toward a blood donation mobile app.
UNASSIGNED: Many efforts have been undertaken to employ mobile apps to make blood donations more convenient and create communities around donating blood. The case study findings suggest a high level of readiness of using mobile apps for blood donation among the younger generation.

People have insufficient knowledge and many misconceptions about the blood donation process, which hampers donors recruitment. Therefore, novel strategies and resources are needed to provide information and improve these circumstances.
We aimed at an interactive conversational agent to explain about blood donation.
We used the Dialogflow framework to develop a conversational agent and deployed it publicly. Afterward, we conducted an assessment of user experience (UX) with 50 participants who interacted with the agent. We analyzed participants\' opinions, the different UX scales, and their association with participants\' demographic variables.
The conversational agent is available on the Google Assistant platform in Brazil. It is capable of responding to utterances related to 30 common questions and concerns about donating blood. The user can interact and explore freely and in any order by typing, speaking and selecting interface elements. The agent responds by speaking and displaying visual information, some multimedia content, and suggestions for continuing the dialogue. It enables a conversational sequence in which knowledge is imparted to the user in stages as the dialogue evolves. The overall UX assessed was very satisfactory, and people with specific demographic characteristics were more likely to have better UX. All participants had positive opinions and attitudes towards the conversational agent.
A conversational agent is a creative and captivating strategy of imparting knowledge and engage people regarding blood donation. The findings reaffirm the potential of using this technology for information outreach, especially for socially relevant purposes.