User Experience Advisory Group Charge

Charge:

The increasingly shared development efforts and growth of the HathiTrust Digital Library creates a greater need for a single coordinated usability effort. The User Experience Advisory Group coordinates and oversees usability activities across all public interfaces for HathiTrust. This includes, but is not limited to, interfaces on web and mobile web devices for reading applications (e.g., PageTurner), aggregation applications (e.g., Collection Builder), searching applications (e.g., Bibliographic and Full-text Search), and support sites (e.g., the HathiTrust partner information site and FAQ pages).

The UX Advisory Group:

• Defines the scope of and develops guidelines and best practices for user research activities in HathiTrust.
• Convenes task forces and works with other HathiTrust groups and committees to develop and conduct user research evaluations to support operational efforts. Members of the UX Advisory Group may serve in a liaison role in other HathiTrust committees and task force projects.
• Takes steps to address issues that are raised through user research and recommends appropriate changes to user interfaces and software systems or strategies of delivery to better meet user needs.
• Provides consulting on user research issues for current and planned projects and recommends appropriate actions.
• Prioritizes collaborative user research efforts according to need and available resources.
• Advises on collection of usage data, including statistics and user feedback, and coordinates the availability of this data for evaluation purposes.

Membership/Composition/Term:

Usability Working Group

The UX Advisory Group consists of a Chair and Vice Chair, along with 2-4 additional professional staff with user research experience.  Members are appointed by the HathiTrust Executive Committee. Membership will be reviewed on an annual basis.

Meetings: will be scheduled on a bi-weekly or monthly basis depending on level of active projects.

Task Force Groups

Members: to be convened or approved by UX Advisory Group and to comprise staff from a partner institution. Ideally, at least one member should have some usability/user research related experience.

Reporting:

Reports to the HathiTrust Executive Director, who in turn reports on UX Advisory Group activity to the HathiTrust Executive Committee and the Strategic Advisory Board. The Chair of the UX Advisory Group may be called upon to represent UX Advisory Group activities or challenges for the Strategic Advisory Board.

Membership: