iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Examples compare music stores, churches, and AI to show how information architecture shapes experience. I propose these six attributes as a neutral vocabulary for information architecture critique, for talking about the qualities of an I.A. rather than talking about the quality of an I.A.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Six attributes let you describe any experience without judging the experience good or bad: Four primary attributes (Understand, Access, Control, Monitor) and two secondary attributes (Relevant, Adaptable). www.agux.co/information-...

agux.co

Talking about I.A. - Six attributes describe experience

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Comment from client about our project meetings: "This has become my safe place: with [your] team"

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And of course frame drift is a natural part of the collaboration process, but not all frames that shift have a significant impact on the overall direction/strategy, so you only have to stay vigilant on the critical ones.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

One of my super powers is I can see the probable future. When that is the best (better) probable future, one annoying thing is that I have to pay close attention to some conversations and intervene when they begin to veer toward a less good probable future (the frame starts to shift).

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

...with different constraints. Each scale changes at different rates, and each scale operates within a different design context. Scale gives us a way to classify the type of information architecture, so we know what we can compare. Platform to platform and site to site.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

How information architecture operates at five different scales: www.agux.co/information-... Information architecture generally applies to one of five scales: The organization, The platform, The site, The interface, or The interaction. At each scale, information architecture operates...

agux.co

Talking about I.A. - I.A. works at different scales

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My personal account of of Jesse James Garret’s historically significant 2009 IA Summit closing plenary where he said “there is no such thing as an information architect”, and a look at his argument about the need for a language for discussing information architecture: www.agux.co/information-...

agux.co

Talking about I.A. - Introduction

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Massive fail on one of the tree test scenarios means we caught something early enough to fix it. Yay. Testing works

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Reposted by Austin Govella

Amyville Hoyrror @amyhoy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

but, still: almost no software ever mattered because of its code. so being able to generate more code is not a competitive advantage. if you can't figure out what people need & want, you're just producing a mountain of unlovable shit, no matter how "elegant" the code may be. fin.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Love that it also has inside pockets

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

After the missing album and no good response about it being lost, I re-ordered it. And then, the lost one showed up. So now I have two.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In other news, I like this interaction design for an Insights Listing. The filter tags are BIG and prominent instead of tiny and hard to see, so what you filtered becomes the title of the page. It's URL addressable, so you can link to pre-filtered sets of insights from anywhere on the site.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Today I start tree testing for a cool B2C site we're working on

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Submitted a talk and a workshop on personalization and information architecture for the 2027 @theiaconf.bsky.social in Philadelphia. The workshop is a hands-on version of the talk, and even though they had the same content, it still took me a week and half, off and on, to finish the submissions.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

You've got about two hours left to Sumit your IA Conference proposal. Get on it!

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Chairs are a funny technology. They look ridiculous and useless yet they’re the perfect place to stick our butts.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The new Mobland almost makes up for the missing record. And t-shirt. Almost

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The album I’ve been waiting on for months was misdelivered so I don’t have it. Someone else does. Such sadness.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Hey get your talk proposal in for the IA conference. Due Sep 27!

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It sounds like old Soft Cell, but new, in the best way

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Doing the production work to prep for a tree test. Sooooo boring...

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Of course, the worms do not survive the trip though his stomach, right? They're not in his gut eating bad bacteria, right? They are digested, RIGHT?

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'm liking it a lot too. Was not expecting to like it this much. Makes me want to revisit the older stuff and see if my tastes have changed

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Do you offer the designs you do not recommend as options to consider? Or to show that you worked through a process to arrive at your recommended version(s)

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

What's the rooms take on presenting wireframe and design options you don't recommend as a way of having multiple versions to compare against each other?

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Animaniacs! I feel like a good foundation in Looney Tunes was necessary for Animaniacs to make sense. Not sure if the zani-ness would make sense if I hadn't been raised on Looney Tunes.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Also, new Godflesh. Surprisingly, not as crushing as previous items. Still very heavy

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Good morning you absolute badasses and rock stars

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

But it's 73 today! And will only hit 91!!!

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It’s 73 outside and glorious. It feels like fall. And it’s only going to hit 91 today.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Always be learning, but you need to know what quadrant you need to learn and where you’re currently learning.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

So when you’re not the smartest person in there room (you should be pretty smart in at least one box), it’s good to have the self-awareness to know where you’re not the smartest person. Same thing with effectiveness.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

A good team isn’t just the one that has smart and/or effective people to fill each of the boxes. It’s the one that can communicate, so the smart, ineffective people can tell the effective people what to do and the effective people are smart enough to translate that into what would be most effective.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I wish I’d known when I started about the different strengths people bring. And they map along quadrants. One axis is smart and effective. The second axis is people, clients, the work, and your own org. It’s hard to be smart and effective in all areas at once. That’s why you need good teams.

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Why didn’t y’all say you were watching Mobland?

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I had a pickle drop last weekend. It was like a lemon drop but with pickle juice. Okay, but weird.

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Reposted by Austin Govella

IAC - Information Architecture Conference @theiaconf.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

We’re accepting proposals for our IAC27 theme "Architectures of Trust: Building What Endures" Share your proposal by Sep 20: buff.ly/ZKmftJ5. Submit before Sep 9 to be automatically entered to win a free virtual ticket to the Button Conference!

IAC27 wants to hear from you in the comments below, What does trust mean to you in products and services?

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Austin Govella @austingovella.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

New client site launched earlier this month for Wipfli, a consulting firm: www.wipfli.com This is my second consulting site to launch this year. I'm getting kinda deep into professional services sites

wipfli.com

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