PPDHero: Requirements Elicitation and Development of a System to Empower New Mothers on Postpartum Depression

This research aims to develop a novel system for screening postpartum depression (PPD) and for providing education and support to new mothers to identify and manage symptoms and connect with health professionals. A requirement elicitation study was conducted following a semi-structured interview (n=6) and survey (n=102) and revealed a set of user requirements that need to be addressed in the proposed system. As such, extensive research and analysis of PPD and related information sources, including healthcare professionals, academic research papers, and online resources, served as a foundation for the development of the web-based system PPDHero. This system goes a step beyond by infusing gamification, setting us apart from the existing digital landscape. The usability of the proposed system was also evaluated through the System Usability Scale (SUS) approach, which was replicated with 18 participants including new mothers and doctors. The SUS scores received from the doctors (84.58) and new mothers (71.79) showed an acceptable quality of the proposed system from a usability perspective. The proposed PPDHero can improve the lives of new mothers by providing them with accessible and efficient tools to manage PPD symptoms.