In order to improve the health information system retrieval experience of elderly users, the age-appropriate design of health system information representations was investigated by analyzing the effects of information representations (text, audio, and image) and task contexts (simple and complex) on retrieval performance, cognitive load, and satisfaction of elderly users, and a suitable information representation design for elderly users in different task contexts was proposed. A two-factor repeated measurement experimental design was used to invite elderly users to complete simple and complex health information search tasks, guided by text, audio and images in a Latin order. Overall, the image representation could guide elderly users to obtain the best health system retrieval performance for the first time with the lowest cognitive load, but elderly users subjectively preferred the audio representation the most. In simple tasks, audio representation design was appropriate for elderly users, while image representation design was appropriate in complex tasks. Elderly-oriented modifications should appropriately reduce text-only information representation guidanceg.