Development of Online Counseling System and Usability Evaluation

Rising prevalence of mental health diseases is a serious problem for society. Some areas in Asia have no medical facilities and proper mental health care is unavailable. To cope with these problems, application of ICT for mental health services has been recognized as one of the effective approaches. Therefore, the authors have been studying and putting into practice online counseling for people assigned overseas. They constructed a system using agile software development for those assigned overseas in Asia. The first step involved developing a prototype system based on system requirements after they repeatedly discussed system development with people in charge of a clinic. Next, they conducted interviews about the online counseling system.