| Summary: | 碩士 === 元智大學 === 資訊傳播學系 === 101 === In the twenty-first century, societies face challenges brought by advancing information technology and aging populations. With information technology development, the Internet has become a hypermedia space that abounds with information, and easily subjects users to heavy cognitive loads. Among others, website navigation structure is a crucial factor that influences user cognitive load, especially for elder who suffer from degenerating cognitive abilities. Although designers should construct websites based on user needs, most current online information-service platforms do not consider the usability of elder, thereby increasing the difficulties elder face when using the Internet. This study analyzed the current structures of information service websites and proposed a research hypothesis. The experimental method was employed to understand the differences among several hierarchical navigation structures and their usability. The results revealed that, for elder, an associative hierarchical structure provides greater usability than that of strict and multi-dimensional hierarchical structures. Therefore, this study suggests that website designers should consider a navigation structure that vertically links different stratifications in the same group. Users can navigate the website easily and locate desired information quickly and precisely. Regarding website managers, the operation load of website servers can be reduced because unnecessary clicks on the site by users are lowered. The results can serve as a reference for designers of website navigation structures to provide increasing elder users with improved Internet benefits.
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