Implementation of Design Thinking Method and Usability Testing in the Design of a Scholarship Information System

The SMA Negeri 1 Singaraja Alumni Scholarship Program is a tangible demonstration of the institution's commitment to enhancing educational quality. However, the selection process is still conducted conventionally, using WhatsApp for information dissemination, collecting hardcopy documents, and manual checking, which leads to delays and file accumulation. This research aims to design a scholarship information system to make the selection process easier, more practical, and faster, using the Design Thinking method. The process involves five stages. The first stage, empathize, produces an empathy map. The second stage, define, results in a user persona, point of view, and pain points. The third stage, ideate, generates how-might-we questions, prioritization ideas, information architecture, and user flow. The fourth stage, prototype, results in the system prototype design. The fifth stage involves testing the prototype design using usability testing to measure effectiveness, efficiency, learnability, error, and user satisfaction. Tests were conducted twice, with a second test being conducted after a design revision based on the results of the first test. Test results showed that the effectiveness aspect increased in students by 17%, teachers by 2%, and staff by 16%. Efficiency aspects improved in students (0,14 goals/sec), teachers (0,03 goals/sec), and staff (0,04 goals/sec). The learnability aspect improved among students by 15%, staff by 2% while teachers experienced a 5% decrease. Error aspects dropped to 0 indicating that no mistakes were made during testing by three groups of users. The satisfaction aspect increased by 4 points, so the scholarship information system design is said to be acceptable with the best imaginable rating and rank A. Keywords : scholarship information system, design thinking, usability testing