Abby York Covert is an independent information architect based in New York City. She has extensive experience leading information architecture projects for companies such as Prismacolor, Kraft, Sharpie, Herman Miller, Nike, and IHOP. Abby prides herself on being an active member and leader in the information architecture community through volunteering, mentoring, and speaking at conferences. She currently serves as the President of the Information Architecture Institute.

1. Abby York Covert / Abby_THE_IA
portfolio as of February 2014

2. I'm Abby, an Independent Information Architect in New York City.
⁃
⁃
I pride myself on being active in the design community: volunteering to produce conferences
for information architecture professionals, mentoring young professionals and attending local
events.
⁃
I hold credit for inventing World Information Architecture Day. The inaugural event was in
2012 serving 14 locations; IA was celebrated on that day by over 1600 attendees globally.
World IA Day 2014 served 24 locations and more then 2500 attendees globally. Because of
my continued service within the IA community, I was recently elected as the President of the
Information Architecture Institute.
⁃
I also teach, write and speak about information architecture to a wide variety of audiences.
More about that is available on my blog (www.abbytheia.com)
⁃
I teach at Parsons the New School, The School of Visual Arts and General Assembly NYC
⁃
Popular Presentations
I use information architecture to assist teams in making sense of their information mess,
whether that be digital or physical.
I have guest lectured for NYU, Miami Ad School and the University of Michigan School of
Information and additionally appeared as a speaker at Interaction12 Dublin, IXDA NYC
Redux12, Wharton Web Conference 12, Search Love 2013 (Boston and London) World IA
Day 2013 NYC & 2014 Ann Arbor, Business Insider NYC Startup Conference 2013 and
Midwest UX 2011 & 2013.
Search is the
front door to UX

3. on
ers
aD
tal
ng
oje
Pr
n
es
ct
La
ign
dia
sig
Me
n
tio
eti
isi
rk
Ma
u
cq
de
ial
oc
il S
Re
ed
ch
tP
un
en
em
ram
on
ign
es
n
tio
ti
ca
ed
ca
pli
n
tio
pli
Ap
ca
eR
Si t
pli
g
tin
ag
rke
ng
Ma
eE
eR
Sit
flin
Of
g
tin
e
sit
nc
kA
igi
oo
-D
eb
Pe
rke
eb
-W
uid
rs
Ma
nd
s-
rog
t
ten
on
-C
S
ols
To
LE
n
les
AP
sig
Sa
ST
de
t
tal
Re
y
en
igi
eg
sm
tem
-D
ra t
es
ys
St
ss
KE
uS
NI
tup
gA
en
tin
tar
-M
-S
rke
ot
OP
Ma
IH
kp
al
t
ac
git
en
Di
yJ
rm
pm
rtfo
elo
lle
Pl a
ev
Mi
rb
an
om
-P
.c
pie
R
TO
rm
De
He
JS
ar
Sh
ke
Liq
ac
-F
pie
-O
LL
JE
ar
Sh
ar
rolo
a
On
Ap
Ap
on
m
ati
lic
ste
Sy
pp
et
rA
nt
ice
erv
me
lf S
ice
Se
erv
lf S
R
ge
nte
an
r
Int
Ce
na
all
Ma
-C
ng
ini
nt
-H
Se
le
Ta
e
nc
HR
er
op
Co
s-
se
ou
rh
sod
Fo
ac
M
po
aft
ism
Ex
Pr
Kr
te
wa
er
rtn
a-
a
ur
Ins
ric
m
a
Tr
of
a
gr
ro
ty
P
lot
Pi
ie
oc
nS
re
ica
me
rd
tfo
Pa
ar
tex
ice
ra
Pr
St
er
a
dic
A
of
nk
eH
Th
Ba
Me
Am
Project
Highlights
Independent
Speaker,
Consultant &
Teacher
Managing
Partner
@ TUG
Director of
Strategic
Planning +
UX @
Draftfcb
Senior UX
Planner
@
DraftFCB
Started IA
practice in @
Closerlook, a
strategic
agency
Lead IA on
innovation
team
@ Fidelity
Investment
s
First job as an
Information
Architect @ EMC
Microsoft Practice.
BA in
Graphic
Design
@
NEU
New York City
Chicago
New Hampshire
Boston
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
IAS14
WIAD NYC
IAS12
IDEA 09 IAS11 IDEA 10
Career Timeline
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
Events Produced
Abby The IA:

5. Work Samples
I have pulled together representative work
from five projects completed in the last few
years to provide examples of my best work.
▪
Prismacolor.com: See examples of wireframes,
sketch reviews, sitemap, functional specification and
content inventory.
▪
Kraft Engagement Program: See examples of
prototype wireframes, flow diagrams and functional
roadmaps.
▪
Sharpie.com Redesign: See examples of
Collaborative Design Session, User Experience Brief,
User Research
▪
Herman Miller: See examples of User Research,
Sketch Reviews, Personas, Map Making
▪
The Understanding Group: See examples of process
engineering, leadership, mentoring, and intellectual
property creation
▪
Nike: See examples of collaborative design facilitation,
map-making and lexicon management
▪
IHOP: See examples of taxonomy, information
architecture strategy for print design and systems
design.

6. Prismacolor.com | Summer 2009
Prismacolor.com
About this effort:
Lead on full site redesign including
a rich social community of artists
sharing their work online.
Results: Redesign resulted in a
400% improvement in
engagement as measured
through site traffic, time on site
and uploads, comments and
views of the member gallery.

7. Prismacolor: Sitemap and Content Inventory
Sitemap and Content Inventory
This project has a fairly complex product catalog that had to be
sorted out. We were working in Sharepoint so the sitemap served
as the format by which we created an excel spreadsheet to easily
upload the content into the Content Management System.

8. Prismacolor: Wireframes and Functional Spec
Wireframe and Functional Specification
The wireframes for this were designed in conjunction with a very
jazzed creative team. Sketch reviews were used to bring all the
ideas onto the table. Later wireframes reviews were conducted
with creative prior to with the clients.

9. Kraft Diabetes Management | Fall 2008
Kraft Diabetes Management
About this effort:
Lead in development of an
engagement program for patients
living with Type 2 diabetes. As part
of this user experience
development effort, 10 expert
healthcare professionals and 6
consumers were consulted actively
on an ongoing basis.
Results: The wireframe prototype
produced during this project was
brought to life as a new line of
business for Kraft Foods offered
through eDiets.

10. Kraft: Flow Diagrams
Flow Diagrams
Flow Diagrams served as a
central tool for us in development
of the process by which this
engagement program would
interact with the user.
Also, a crucial tool when getting
feedback from the medical
professionals and development
partners we were collaborating
with.

11. Sharpie.com
Sharpie.com
About this effort:
Lead in redesign that brought
together Sharpie’s very popular
social community properties with
the more standard catalog
functionality
Results: Sharpie was written up in
the NY times on site launch day.
They also received the TED Ads
Worth Spreading Award in 2012.
Analytics over time have shown a
significant uptick in repeat visits
and time on site.

12. Sharpie Research
Competitive Analysis & User Research
Research was essential to
help Sharpie redefine their
digital audience. Then by
implementing a phased
roadmap and creating
detailed plans for their first
phase, we were able to give
them a tool kit to move their
business forward in digital

13. Herman Miller Digital Marketing
Herman Miller Digital Marketing
About this effort:
As part of this year long effort,
working for Herman Miller's digital
marketing organization, the
eCommerce site was fully
assessed heuristically, analytically
and with users in order to prioritize
future improvement, personas for
eCommerce were created to
extend existing offline personas,
and a full map of all digital
properties was created and vetted.
Results: Herman Miller was able to
easily direct their agency on how to
grow their catalog by 30% as well as
add several new categories.

14. The Understanding Group
The Understanding Group
About this effort:
Lead development of all
deliverable templates, process
engineering decisions and training
of employees.
Results: TUG grew from 3 people
to 12 in the first year. Employees
reported that the tools created
around process and training were
excellent compared to their past
experiences.

15. IA Heuristics
About this effort:
In 2012 I decided to create a
spreadable model and message
about Information Architecture
Heuristics.
Results: The talk and subsequent
blog post "Does it have legs?" has
been viewed over 45,000 times on
and has been made into a poster by
the Understanding Group. It has
been redistributed to over 20
countries. This talk has become part
of the regular class program at
General Assembly in New York City.

16. Nike
NIKE: Digital Sales Tools Redesign
About this effort:
Lead information architect
responsible for facilitating
concensus across multiple project
teams at Nike and their digital
agency of record in support of a
redesign of 20+ disparate systems
into one portal and set of 6 core
applications sharing data.
Results: The agency assigned to
the redesign work now has to the
tools and process that they need to
work. The confusions around
terminology that had in the past
gotten in the way has started to be
relieved. A higher level of
collaboration is the only measurable
outcome at this point in a 5 year
project.

17. IHOP
IHOP: Restaurant Menu Redesign
About this effort:
Lead information architect
responsible for providing the
architectural perspective on the
redesign of the IHOP restaurant
menu system.
The menu, aside from being
outdated in design, had a
sprawling information architecture
that did not promote ordering side
items or focus on breakfast which
was the brand's ideal message.
Results: Sales per store increased
3.6% after implementation of the
new menu system. Stores also
reported an increase in the amount
of add-on items per order.

18. Thanks!
Thanks!
For further information on my availability for Consulting
or speaking, contact me directly at
abbycovert@gmail.com | @Abby_The_IA