This study investigates, within the current health care situation, theinterrelationship of the user, resources and tool in the design of a prototypeWELLNESS database-driven web site. A shift has taken place in health care,in which the base of conventional medicine has broadened to integrate othersystems, practices and worldviews. These include complementary andalternative medicine, health promotion, disease prevention and wellness.Emphasis is placed on the need to take personal responsibility for one's ownhealth and wellness. The global burden of chronic disease, reachingepidemic proportions, is increasingly linked to risk factors resulting frompersonal lifestyle choices. The growing evidence of the user's need to makepersonal, informed, lifestyle choices and their reliance on the Web for healthinformation, required investigation. WELLNESS, a specific orientation tohealth and wellness, formed the framework within which the user andresources were defined and the tool designed. The user was profiled as theWELLNESS health information seeker, hereby contributing significantly to anunderstanding of the user in this new context. The user profile informed theestablishment of resource selection criteria and tool design. The identificationof WELLNESS content selection criteria, within a five-dimensional model, wasrequired to ensure quality, relevant and credible resources. The tool iscomprised of the WELLNESS thesaurus and WELLNESS database-drivenweb site. The WELLNESS thesaurus was constructed based on acombination of relevant thesauri. It will be used as an indexing tool. Aninvestigation of existing health information web sites highlighted theimportance of designing a specific WELLNESS database-driven web site. Adatabase host was identified against which the original study's conceptualschema was assessed. A low-fidelity prototype web site was designed as theinterface between the WELLNESS health information seeker and thedatabase of WELLNESS health information resources. This study hasepidemiological, philosophical, epistemological, sociological andpsychological relevance. The provision of access to WELLNESS healthinformation resources, made available in the WELLNESS database-drivenweb site, for personal, informed lifestyle choice by the WELLNESS health information seeker could potentially contribute to the reduction of the globalburden of chronic disease.