SiKS: An Integrated Web-Based Student Counseling Information System with Automated WhatsApp Notifications

Fragmented school counseling records can obscure case histories, disrupt follow-up, and weaken communication with families. This study developed and formatively evaluated SiKS, an integrated web-based student counseling information system that connects counseling activities through role-based access and automated WhatsApp notifications. Requirements were elicited through interviews with the Vice-Principal for Student Affairs and a School Counselor at an Indonesian vocational high school, supplemented by analysis of the existing workflow. Developed using the Waterfall model, Laravel, and MySQL, the prototype links appointment requests, scheduling, counseling records, follow-up actions, parental summons, reporting, and notification logs across six user roles. Evaluation included 50 black-box scenarios derived from the requirements and user acceptance testing with 20 role-representative respondents after a guided walkthrough. Three validators reviewed the 15-item instrument, assigning 211 out of 225 possible points (93.78%). All 50 executed functional scenarios produced the expected outputs. User acceptance scores totaled 1,336 out of 1,500 points (89.07%), with item scores ranging from 82% to 96%. Interface attractiveness, suitability for school use, menu accessibility, and perceived confidentiality under role-based access received the strongest ratings; report clarity, printing and downloading, and notification services received comparatively lower ratings. The study presents a context-specific design that links case continuity, differentiated access, and event-triggered communication within a single counseling workflow. The findings support functional conformance under the tested conditions and favorable initial user perceptions. Developer-led testing, the single-school setting, and guided exposure limit inferences about independent use, sustained adoption, privacy protection, and counseling outcomes.