THE UI/UX DESIGN FOR THE UII STUDENT BUSINESS MARKETPLACE APPLICATION USING UNMODERATED USABILITY TESTING

Abstract

The economic success of higher education institutions is greatly supported by student entrepreneurship. Although there is great potential for student-led businesses at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII), current digital platforms, such as the UII Student Mall, only function as product catalogs and do not sufficiently facilitate transactions, company administration, or user-centered interactions. To ensure usability and reliability through unmoderated usability testing, this study discusses how to improve the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of online marketplace programs that aim to support various types of student companies. The purpose of this study is to develop a mobile-based online marketplace UI/UX solution based on actual user needs and evaluate its usability through unmoderated testing techniques. This study uses questionnaires, interviews, and observations as user research methods. An interactive prototype is then used for unmoderated usability assessment. The results show that fragmented platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp are heavily relied upon by student entrepreneurs, resulting in complicated and inefficient transaction processes. To reduce cognitive load and improve usability, the proposed UI/UX design emphasizes information visibility, integrated user flows, and transaction transparency. Iterative design improvements and usability problem identification in natural usage situations were successfully supported by unmoderated testing. According to the study findings, campus-based marketplace applications for student entrepreneurship can significantly improve usability and reliability by combining unmoderated usability testing with data-driven UI/UX design processes