健康資訊是使用者在網路上重要的搜尋項目之一。為了讓使用者取得有效的健康資訊，其相關網站必須針對不同的使用者去評估網頁內容的品質，因為這些健康網站會影響使用者在健康照護上的決策。目前，已經有許多研究和文獻發展出準則用來評估健康資訊網站的品質和可用度。然而，大部分的準則都是在英語環境下所建立的。在一個全球化的情形下，本研究認為網站使用者和設計者對於可用度的看法會被其所屬的文化特質所影響。值得注意的是，由於中文使用者的需求，中文健康網站的成長是本研究所關心的議題之一。區域化可用度準則的第一步，必須先了解中文語言與文化對於健康網站可用度準則的影響。本研究使用文獻回顧與初步專家訪談的兩種資料蒐集方式，從語言學與文化上的特點來探討此兩因素對於可用度準則的影響。為了探討此三者間的關聯，本研究使用內容分析法 (Content Analysis) 分析蒐集到的質性資料。最後，本研究會建立一個針對台灣環境的關聯模型 (Relationship Model) ，描述語言、文化和可用度之間的關聯。並期望此模型圖能夠透過從語言學和文化上的相關定義討論，進而提供網頁設計者和評估者在網頁可用度的設計和評估上，能了解在台灣環境下，語言和文化是如何影響網路可用度。

Health information is one of the most important subjects that internet users search online. In order that web users can retrieve valid health information, the websites must be evaluated for quality of content and usability by the target population because they are influential in healthcare decision-making. Currently, many criteria have been developed to assess the quality and usability of health related websites. Nevertheless, most of these criteria are established from English language environment. On a global scale, we could argue that the perception of usability is influenced by users’ or designers’ cultural characteristics. Especially, the flourishing of Chinese health websites appeals to this study owing to the demand of Chinese speaking users. The initiation for localizing the usability criteria, it is necessary to conduct a study that discusses the impact of Chinese language and culture on usability criteria of health websites. The study executes the literature review and preliminary expert interview to investigate the impact of language and culture on the usability criteria in terms of linguistic and cultural dimensions. In order to study the relevance of three themes, the content analysis will be employed for analyzing the qualitative data. Ultimately, the study establishes a relationship usability model and illustrates the relationships among language, culture and usability for Taiwanese environment. We expect that the model is capable of providing web designers and evaluators with relevant definitions concerning linguistic and cultural differences along with discussion on how language and culture impact the usability criteria.

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