@conference { ISI:000380409500003, title = {Are Mobile Blood Donation Applications Green?}, booktitle = {2015 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS: THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS (SITA)}, year = {2015}, note = {10th International Conference on Intelligent Systems - Theories and Applications (SITA), ENSIAS, Rabat, MOROCCO, OCT 20-21, 2015}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, abstract = {On a global scale, software sustainability is attracting more and more attention. The term green software often refers to environmental sustainability applied to software systems, however, it is impacted by the different dimensions of sustainability. Green software can be divided into green by software and green in software. Blood donation mobile applications are more and more used by smartphone users. They represent an alternative way to attract volunteers and increase awareness about the importance of blood donation acts. The aim of this paper is to assess the greenability of seventy-two free blood donation applications using individual, social, environmental and technical dimensions of sustainability. The type, functionality and energy consumption of each app are identified and analyzed. Results have shown that the type of the BD app has a great impact on its level of greenability.}, isbn = {978-1-5090-0220-7}, author = {Ouhbi, Sofia and Luis Fernandez-Aleman, Jose and Idri, Ali and Rivera Pozo, Jose} } @article { ISI:000356162200002, title = {Compliance of Blood Donation Apps with Mobile OS Usability Guidelines}, journal = {JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SYSTEMS}, volume = {39}, number = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {JUN}, abstract = {The aim of this paper is to employ the guidelines of Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Phone to analyze the usability compliance of free blood donation (BD) apps. An analysis process based on a systematic review protocol is used to select free BD apps. An assessment is conducted using a questionnaire composed of 13 questions concerning the compliance of free BD apps with Android, Blackberry, iOS and Windows Phone usability guidelines. A total of 133 free BD apps have been selected from the 188 BD apps identified. Around 63 \% of the free BD apps selected have a good compliance with mobile OS usability recommendations. Around 72 \% of Android, 57 \% of Windows Phone, 33 \% of iOS and 33 \% of Blackberry BD apps have a high usability score. The aspect of BD app behavior should be improved along with some style components: the use of pictures to explain ideas and the adaptation of the app to both horizontal and vertical orientations. Structure patterns should also be used to improve the structure aspect of a BD app. Usability is a quality aspect that should be improved in current BD apps. Our study provides smartphone users with a list of usable free BD apps and BD app developers with recommendations.}, issn = {0148-5598}, doi = {10.1007/s10916-015-0243-1}, author = {Ouhbi, Sofia and Luis Fernandez-Aleman, Jose and Rivera Pozo, Jose and El Bajta, Manal and Toval, Ambrosio and Idri, Ali} } @article { ISI:000352821900011, title = {Free Blood Donation Mobile Applications}, journal = {JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SYSTEMS}, volume = {39}, number = {5}, year = {2015}, month = {MAY}, abstract = {Blood donation (BD) is a noble act and mobile applications (apps) can help increase awareness about it. This paper analyzes and assesses the characteristics of free apps for BD as regards features and functionality. A search in Google Play, Apple Apps store, Blackberry App World and Windows Mobile App store was carried out to select 169 free BD apps from the 188 apps identified. The results presented in this paper show that the majority of the apps selected have been developed for the Android operating system. Moreover, most of the apps selected are available to help users search for donors. Few of the apps could not be installed and/or accessed. Of those that could be installed: half of them do not require any kind of authentication; a few of them are available in more than one language; half of them have a geographical restriction; around 60 \% of them do not notify the user of BD events and requests; one, which is available for Android and iOS, can connect with a laboratory; around 45 \% of them allow users to share information via social networks, and the majority of them do not provide BD recommendations. These results are used as a basis to provide app developers with certain recommendations. There is a need for better BD apps with more features in order to increase the number of volunteer donors.}, issn = {0148-5598}, doi = {10.1007/s10916-015-0228-0}, author = {Ouhbi, Sofia and Luis Fernandez-Aleman, Jose and Toval, Ambrosio and Idri, Ali and Rivera Pozo, Jose} }