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Gerry As I said in my last post, I think you miss the point. Your sense of what graphic designers do and are trained to do is incredibly narrow. Your description of information architecture is remarkably like a description of book design, an aspect of graphic design which is now in its fifth hundred year of practice. Nothing in your definition adds anything new to the art. As an example of what I mean, have a look at Stanley Morison 'First Principles of Typography' (my second edition was published in 1967) or better still spend some time in a good library looking at pre-printing manuscripts from which most of the principles of good graphic design derive. I have yet to read a single empirical study on web usage and design that adds significantly to the body of practical know how and research that had been accumulated prior to the internet by designers and design researchers. If anything, the internet is in some respects a step backwards. But to understand why needs an understanding of graphic design. It may be that calling oneself an information architect sounds good as a current buzzword, but let us not imagine that we are talking about something new. This is just a branding excercise. As a practicing designer I have always been concerned with organising content, metadata, classification, navigation, search, layout etc. This is what I do! This is what many of my colleagues do! And all of this has been guide throughout my professional life by the principles you lay claim to: 1. To help people quickly find the content they need 2. To present this content in a readable format None of which is unique to me, nor did I invent the practice or the methods we use. Rather, I was able to draw on the great works of those who came before me and who did make significant inventions. Reinventing the wheel is no great achievement. Though I will grant that spreading good ideas, as you have to a wider community, is highly commendable. But let's have a bit of historical perspective. Also, I think you will find with that historical perspective that there is a lot more to good graphic design than the above principles. David -- Professor David Sless Director Communication Research Institute of Australia ** helping people communicate with people ** PO Box 398 Hawker ACT 2614 Australia Mobile: 0412 356 795 phone: +61 (0)2 6259 8671 fax: +61 (0)2 6259 8672 web: http://www.communication.org.au