Helping students with limited funds to start and develop their businesses

Ever wondered why so few students dive into entrepreneurship?

No, it’s not because they lack passion.

Lack of funds, marketing know-how, and business knowledge are the major roadblocks for them. With Galang, we're changing the game by offering a platform that not only helps students raise funds through Securities Crowdfunding (SCF) but also equips them with essential business skills. We’re making it possible for students to build and grow their businesses confidently.

My Role

• Create user flows
• Wireframing
• Create a UI Kit
• Create high-fidelity designs (Login, Sign Up, Profile, Portfolio, Account Verification, Top Up, Withdrawal, and UMKM Detail Page)
• Conduct usability testing to two type of users, students who own business and people who willing to invest in SMEs
• Iterate various design solutions

Challenges

• Find targeted users (entrepreneur students and investors)
• Understanding between Securities Crowdfunding and Equity Crowdfunding scheme
• Create a secure system to minimize fraud

Process Framework

We followed a process: starting with Discover, where we gathered insights through user research; Define, where we identified key problems and focus areas; Ideate, where we brainstormed solutions; Design, where we created prototypes; and Test, where we validated our designs with real users. Finally, we Iterated based on feedback to refine and enhance the solution, ensuring it met user needs and delivered meaningful impact.

This process ensures a user-centered approach, enabling us to solve the right problems and design meaningful, impactful solutions. By iterating, we continuously improve the product to meet user needs and achieve business goals effectively.

DISCOVER

What We Learned Before Talking to Users

Did you know that SMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) are the backbone of Indonesia’s economy? There are 64.2 million SMEs in the country, and they contribute a massive 61.07% to the GDP—over IDR 8,573.89 trillion! Even though Indonesia has already surpassed the global standard for entrepreneurs with a 3.1% ratio, we’re still behind countries like Singapore, which has a 7% ratio. Since Indonesia is no longer considered a developing country, we need to step up and grow our number of entrepreneurs to match the standards of advanced nations

Here’s where it gets interesting—students are a huge part of this future. But unfortunately, most of them, around 83% of the 5 million surveyed, dream of becoming employees rather than entrepreneurs. That’s a big challenge, especially when the digital era offers so many opportunities to start a business.

Understanding the Stakeholders

To gain a deep understanding of our stakeholders' needs and problems, we conducted user interviews with four student entrepreneurs and two investors. Here are the key insights we gathered:

Through these interviews, we were able to step into the shoes of our users and truly understand their frustrations.

DEFINE

Building a Clear Picture of Our Users

To make sense of these findings, we organized the insights into an empathy map, visualizing user thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which guided the next steps of our design process.

Empathy Map

Imagine you're a student with a great business idea but no clue where to start.

You hear that the biggest challenge is funding, and even if you manage to start, finding investors feels impossible. You’re also confused about what platforms to use and what steps to take to attract those elusive investors. You do your research, try to learn marketing, and plan your finances, but there’s still that nagging doubt—what if your idea isn’t good enough? Investors want stability and a clear vision, but you're struggling to understand the requirements and build the right team. The whole process feels overwhelming, and you’re left wondering if there’s a simple way to make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality.

These insights are shaping our approach to better serve both student entrepreneurs and investors, bridging the gap between great ideas and the support needed to bring them to life.

To translate the insights into clear and actionable representations of our key users, we developed 2 personas: one representing the ambitious student entrepreneur seeking funding and guidance, and the other reflecting the cautious investor looking for stable, high-potential businesses. These personas served as a foundation to guide our design process and ensure our solutions addressed their specific needs.

Student Entrepreneur Persona

Investor Persona

IDEATE

Shaping Solutions That Matter

We brought our team together for a dynamic brainstorming session to generate solutions that address the key challenges faced by student entrepreneurs and investors. Guided by user insights and personas, we explored ideas that could bridge funding gaps, provide valuable entrepreneurial resources, and establish seamless connections between students and investors. This collaborative process allowed us to evaluate potential features and prioritize those that would deliver the most impact, setting the foundation for a user-centered design approach.

To organize these ideas into a cohesive structure, we developed an information architecture that prioritizes quick access and intuitive navigation. The main sections—Home, Search, Portfolio, Course, and Profile—were carefully selected and positioned in the bottom navigation bar based on their frequency of use and relevance to user needs. Since the app focuses on investing and learning, placing the SMEs Listing (Watchlist) and Course in the Home page ensures users can access these critical features efficiently, streamlining their journey and reducing the time required to complete tasks.

Information Architecture

We designed user flows to map out key actions, like students enrolling in courses or investors funding businesses. These flows helped us optimize journeys for a seamless, user-friendly experience that aligns with their goals.

User Flows

DESIGN

Time to Craft 🛠

I began by creating wireframes to establish the app’s layout and functionality. These low-fidelity designs helped us visualize the structure and prioritize essential elements based on user needs, ensuring the interface was clear and intuitive.

Wireframes

With the foundation set, we transitioned to high-fidelity designs to define the app’s visual identity. This stage focused on creating a polished look with consistent branding, accessibility, and an engaging user interface.

High-fidelity Designs

Experience It First-Hand

To bring our designs to life, we developed an interactive prototype with Figma. This allowed us to simulate real user interactions, test usability, and validate the overall flow. The prototype also set the stage for the next phase—testing—where we would gather feedback to refine and enhance the design further.

TEST

Finding the Flaws

In the testing stage, we conducted usability testing (in person) with 13 participants using 4 scenarios to uncover pain points in using the app using Maze. Despite challenges in recruiting targeted users, we tested with 6 targeted users (previous interviewees) and 7 non-targeted users to ensure broader feedback.

n.b. Kelas Starter = Starter Class, Kelas Jawara = Advanced Class

Usability Testing Score Using Maze

Participants also completed the SUS (System Usability Scale) questionnaire, yielding an average score of 76.34, categorized as "Good" according to Adobe standards.

Average SUS Score

ITERATE

Fine-Tuning Through Feedback

We gathered some information from users to gain insight into what they thought after conducting usability testing. Here is what they said:

🤔

Scenario #3 (Course Page)

You are an investor and want to fund a business named PT Sinergi Ketahanan Pangan (Chickin Indonesia) by purchasing 1 lot of their shares

Based on this feedback, we realized it was illogical to allow users to access all chapters without first completing the preceding ones, as each chapter builds on the previous content in a progressive learning structure. To address this, we disabled the buttons for chapters that have not yet been unlocked by completing the prior ones. This approach not only ensures a proper learning flow but also adds an element of gamification, encouraging users to complete each chapter as a challenge before progressing further.

Before

After

Toast message will appear if the user clicks the disabled button to tell them that they have to finish the previous chapter

🤔

Scenario #4 (Course Detail Page)

They are overwhelmed by the content because it’s full of text and they suggest to shortening the description and adding bullet points about what will be discussed in the course

So we decided to divide the content into sections and increase the contrast of the text because other user complained about the readability of the content.

Before

After

The Journey So Far and Reflections

As we wrap up this project, it's clear that every step brought invaluable insights and opportunities for growth. From understanding user challenges to refining solutions, the journey highlighted the importance of adaptability and continuous improvement.