A Mobile Application for Mental Health Care During COVID-19 Pandemic: Development and Usability Evaluation with System Usability Scale

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has an alarming consequence on the mental health of individuals of the affected countries. Though, several digital solutions are developed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, little attention has been paid to develop any useful digital solution for providing mental support, especially in the context of Bangladesh. Therefore, the objectives of this research are to elicit the primary user requirements for developing a digital solution; and to design and develop a mobile-based solution for providing mental health support to the people of Bangladesh. To achieve these objectives, firstly, a requirement elicitation study was conducted with 37 participants through semi-structured interviews to reveal the requirements for developing a mobile application. Secondly, a mobile application named ‘Muktomon’ [open one’s mind] was designed and developed that includes features like provide virtual mental health assistance using artificial intelligence (AI) based chat bot, virtual therapy through videos and audios, support to establish communication with doctors for getting the mental health services, and a list of authentic news sources. Finally, the usability and usefulness of this application were evaluated through the System Usability Scale (SUS). The findings of the evaluation study showed that the application is usable and useful to provide a positive impact towards improving the mental health state during the COVID-19 pandemic.