Hello IAC21
My name is Abby Covert. I am an information architect, author and community organizer living and writing in Melbourne, Florida.
Over the last decade, I have served the IAC community as a producer, executive producer, co-chair, workshop leader, speaker, Understanding Bee winner (Peter? Dan? Everyone? I won right?), poster session organizer, and maybe most important of all in times of community need: chief welcome-hugger and deep-talk-haver.
In 2020, I was thrilled to be selected as one of the keynote speakers. Writing and delivering that talk, about 6 weeks into first COVID19 lockdown, was a challenge that looking back on might have been the push to prove to myself that I was in fact happiest when writing.
In my keynote I reflected on what it means to be persistent in the face of persistent problems.
This year my role has changed once again.
As this year’s IA Conference season approached, I knew I wanted to be involved in a new way again. Given my most recent path as a product creator and full-time writer, I decided to become a community sponsor and use this opportunity to (re)introduce myself and tell you all about my newest adventure as a small business making products and guides for sensemakers.
I am proud to join a list of companies that I respect so much for nurturing the IAC community for in some cases going on TWO decades. I am so looking forward to this year’s remote event and hope to see you in the halls at an event in coming years. I am already designing my booth for when we are back in person — its going it be so nerdy and fun!
Ok! Now onto the gift I have for you all…
I gave my first real IA talk at IXD12. It was called Does it have legs? A framework of 10 Information Architecture Heuristics principles I found in canonical heuristic sources and crystallized into a checklist that I posited might be helpful to people asking whether their information architecture decisions were any good.
I designed a poster to match which was presented at Poster night of the IA Summit in 2013. My good friends at the Understanding Group printed a run of them.
The deck from that talk and the original poster shown above have gone on to help introduce information architecture thinking to more than a hundred thousand people all over the world (I know, cool right?!)
Over the years, the copies we ran in that original print sold out and I received countless pictures of people who hung them in their offices, design studios, classrooms and conference rooms to remind them to think about the IA always.
In 2020 as I opened my new Etsy shop I rereleased the poster and developed an accompanying workbook.
As a gift to the IAC21 community: I am offering FREE digital downloads of my IA Heuristics Poster for all attendees.
I will additionally be entering every person who downloads a poster into a raffle for signed and printed posters that I will be mailing out to three lucky winners next month.
As an extra special treat — fellow IAC21 community member Bibiana Nunes translated the poster into Spanish to offer as a giveaway to IAC21 attendees as well. Head over to her site via the link below and sign up for her mailing list to get the download.
Ready to Download you FREE IA Heuristics Poster?
In Spanish? (Note: this takes you to Bibi’s site where you will join her list to get the download)