Hooray! At last it seems that information architects are finally waking up to the fact that real users don't understand wire frames.

I've always created wire frames that are a combination of traditional 'skeletal' wire frames with some graphical elements. At the very least I have always included colour in my wire frames, because I believe it's crucial in highlighting click-able areas on a screen.

During my career as a multimedia designer I've worked in a few companies were the information architecture of the website or web application is the sole responsibility of the IA and the designer is not allowed to have any input what so ever in the architecture of the interface.

In just about every one of those projects I've always had to give the client a little lesson on how to interpret the wire frames.   Strange but true.

You would think that the IA would have done this during their presentation to the client; perhaps they did but it just wasn't clear to the client until they see the visual result. The strange fact is that time and time again it falls upon the designer to explain to the client that the wire frame is simply just a skeleton much like an architectural plan.

I believe that most of the time clients are too afraid to admit; for fear of looking stupid that they don't really understand what these abstract page layouts actually represent.

I would also like to emphasise that I have worked with some very good IA's who have simplified some wonderfully complex interfaces, it's not a matter of talent or expertise I think it has something to do with the 'purist' nature of IA's deliverables.

Many IA's believe that graphic design hinders the interface, all you have to do is hang out Jakob Nielsen's website for a couple of minutes and you get the impression that designers are just here to visually pollute the web.

I agree that there are many designers who to put it nicely screw up a perfectly good interface but the majority of designers understand the importance of what it takes to design a good interface. I started creating websites before the role for information architects was even in existence, and whilst I believe that their role is valuable I think that they need to work closer with the designers when creating interfaces. The dividing line is too extreme and we need to give users a realistic model of what they will be using not an abstract schematic that is difficult to decipher and makes users feel stupid, it's especially ironic because IA's are supposedly meant to create more usable interfaces, unfortunately that's not always the case.

It's great to finally read an article that highlights the benefits of combing IA with design elements.