Development of a user-centered health information service system for depressive symptom management

A user-centered, Web-based depressive symptoms management system might be particularly useful in Korea, where those who seek mental health care face stigmatizing and where personal computers and the Internet have reached saturation levels. The purpose of this article is to describe the development process of a Web-based system for depressive symptom management through user-centered design principles. Our design process included four distinct phases: a needs assessment, analysis, design/development/testing, and the application release. The final revised website was released with the URL address, "http://www.baejy.com/smiles/". In the 3 years since the site was made available publicly, it is notable that 161,604 Koreans have accessed this website, either for educational purposes or for managing their depressive symptoms. A Web-based depressive symptom management system with a high degree of usability was developed. This website can be used to assess depressive symptoms and to serve as an intervention strategy to improve mental health.