Abby Covert

“I believe information architecture has the power to make the world a clearer place.”

Abby is the new face of information architecture (IA). There, I said it. She has done so much to inform people of the benefits of information architecture in organizing and structuring systems and software work, that it’s difficult to refute this claim.

Abby’s book “How to Make Sense of Any Mess: Information Architecture for Everybody” stands alongside the polar bear book as seminal and required reading on information architecture. Her IA heuristics arrived out of her analysis of Nielsen’s heuristics (1990), Lou Rosenfeld’s IA heuristics (2004), Peter Morville’s UX HoneyComb (2004), ISO 9241 Ergonomics of Human System Interaction (2006), and Resmini/Rosati’s Pervasive IA Heuristics (2011). These IA heuristics should be used to (1) teach heuristics as the basics of how to critique digital work; (2) evaluate the current state of a product or service; and (3) critique what is about to be tested.

An active organizer and mentor, she is the inventor of World Information Architecture Day, a free global celebration of IA held in 50+ locations serving thousands in their local communities annually. She’s a founding member of SVA’s Products of Design Masters Program.

Abby Covert’s work includes:

How to Make Sense of Any Mess: Information Architecture for Everybody (2014).