Muhammad Jaya Siraj presented the Lingkar Puan technology at the Gemastik XIII event

ITS Campus, ITS News – Violence against women is one of the most complicated issues in Indonesia. That is underpinning students of the Informatics Engineering Department of Institute of Technology Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) initiating web-based applications. Lingkar Puan, the application designed by Wasilatul Dewi Ningrum, Paramastri Ardiningrum, and Muhammad Jaya Siraj who joined the NCC Lab Team.

NCC Lab Team Leader, Wasilatul Dewi Ningrum, revealed that the team got the idea when looking at accounts on social media that contained posts about violence against women. “Typically, survivors of this violence tend to comment and talk about their experiences, but they can’t find a solution,” said Wasil

Wasil continued, departing from the fury over the growing violence cases against women, the NCC Lab team developed the Lingkar Puan application. Through Lingkar Puan, the team wanted to educate the community about violence against women through articles. “The article was written by people from psychological backgrounds and created to support survivors, so it is expecting that they will dare to tell stories and share support,” he said.

Lingkar Puan also provides psychological consultations and legal consultations for registered users. Called Rekan Cerita, the psychology consultation help users eliminate the trauma of the violence that they experienced. More than that, registered users can share stories and questions related to psychology through Rekan Cerita along with people with psychological backgrounds.

(from left) Wasilatul Dewi Ningrum, Paramastri Ardiningrum, and Muhammad Jaya Siraj showing their application called Lingkar Puan

Wasil said legal consultation is also added in the Lingkar Puan feature. Called Rekan Hukum, users can consult on the field of law. “Starting from how the cases of violence they experienced before the law and what they needed if their case into the realm of law,” he said.

To determine the exact features, the NCC Lab team conducted interviews with people with psychological and legal backgrounds who experience online consulting applications and advocacy offices. “We interviewed in advance so that we know what features are needed to help survivors,” He explained.

Referring to broad targets, MongoDB, Express, React, and Node (MERN) technologies were chosen to develop the web-based Lingkar Puan. This team deliberately uses the technology so that people can access the application freely. That is, there is no need for a device with high specifications to access Lingkar Puan. Besides, with this technology, Lingkar Puan can present chat features in real-time.

Frontpage display of the Puan Circle website, the work of the ITS student team

Asked about similar applications, this student from Jombang mentioned that psychology applications and legal consultations are still too typical and not focused on handling violence against women. “So the advantages of this application, the specifications of people are people who understand the violence against women. There continue to be other applications whose content of articles is also still common, not violence against women, while Lingkar Puan is there,” he explained.

Wasil also revealed the process of making the three-team members’ application could not meet because of the pandemic. Besides, different course schedules make all three have to adjust the plan to meet online. Regardless, online app testing brings challenges. “Testing the application online is also difficult because having to direct respondents to create an account is much more difficult than directing directly,” he said.

But the obstacles did not dampen the spirit of the three to complete the application of Lingkar Puan. With the Scrum method, the division of work clearer. All three can also monitor the progress of work in the creation of applications every week.

Lingkar Puan article features that can be accessed without registering.

Lingkar Puan led the NCC Lab Team to bear fruit in the National Student Performance of Information and Communication Technology (Gemastik) XIII in 2020, some time ago. The team also won a gold medal in the Software Development category.

Wasil said the app is already in the testing phase. In addition to being tested for survivors, Lingkar Puan was tested on the general public and people with psychological and legal backgrounds. After going through the testing phase, Lingkar Puan may be running. “We will work with people with psychological and legal backgrounds as our consultants in Rekan Cerita and Rekan Hukum. When ready, we will publish it so that survivors can visit our website in lingkarpuan.com,” he explained.

In the end, the NCC Lab team hopes that the general public can be more aware of violence against women. They also urged the public not to look negatively at the victims. “May survivors not be afraid to tell stories. We hope that with this application, we can facilitate them to dare to tell stories and dare to report,” concluded Wasil hopefully. (dya/pan/ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS)

The poster of the Lingkar Puan application made by the NCC Lab,Team which won gold in the Gemastik XIII event