UX Fika Podcast #21: Abby Covert on Making Sense Of Mess, The Role Of Information Architecture, And Community
In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Abby Covert, information architect, writer, and community organiser who’s spent the past two decades helping people make sense of messes. She’s the author of ‘How to Make Sense of Any Mess’ and ‘Stuck? Diagrams Help’, and the founder of The Sensemakers Club, a growing community where sensemakers from diffferent walks of life come together to learn from each other.
We talk about how her first book started as a small, self-published side project, written in a café, born out of a desire to help people who felt overwhelmed by complexity, and how it became one of the most beloved design books of the last decade. Abby shares how her autism diagnosis reshaped her relationship with structure, and why making sense of messes is as much about empathy and understanding as it is about organisation.
We explore how information architecture has changed, from site maps and taxonomies to search, data, and algorithms, and why its role today is more important than ever. Abby explains why IA should be seen as business-critical infrastructure, how it helps organisations make smarter decisions, and what happens when teams skip systems thinking altogether.
It’s a conversation about clarity, connection, and how structure shapes not just our products, but our understanding of the world around us.
If you like the episode, please leave rate and leave a review to help Abby’s story reach more people.
Plus:
☕️ Why a sweet danish with black tea with a little bit of milk is her go to fika
⭐ Why if the algorithm shows you that you might be autistic or ADHD or something, you should take the test
Where you'll find Abby
Where you’ll find Anna & UX Fika: