Implementation of Design Thinking in Designing UPN Wellness & Youth Support Applications for Student Mental Health

Students' mental health is an important issue that requires serious attention, given its impact on their academic performance and well-being. This research develops the U-WAYS app with a Design Thinking approach, which aims to provide mental health support for university students through features such as mental health articles, counseling services, and self-assessment questionnaires. The app development process included the Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test stages, which ensured the solution was centered on user needs and preferences. The evaluation was conducted using two stages of testing involving feedback from users to refine the application's features and interface. In the test results using UEQ, the value of the prototype that has been designed is obtained as follows: attractiveness level of 2.16, stimulation level of 2, accuracy level of 1.8, efficiency level of 1.45, and finally novelty level of 1.44. It can be said that the prototype created according to the UEQ scale has a positive user experience because most of the levels are above the value of 1.0. In addition, the test results using SUS obtained a final SUS value of 76.5. Based on the SUS scale, the results of this SUS test are in the “B” category or can be said to be Good. The application of the Design Thinking method is effective in application development, can help improve student mental health. The findings also identify areas of improvement that can be made to improve the quality and usability of the application in the future.