I would like to thank Sean Hurley for helpful discussions of many of the issues considered in this chapter and for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Doug Morse and Kirsten Whitley for examples of the use of diagrams in society throughout history. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Laura R. Novick,

While I will begin with my own evidence for the decline of geometry in this century and my own description on how such a decline has proceeded, my basic theme is hopeful. Geometry has not died because it is essential to many other human activities and because it is so deeply embodied in how humans think. With the introduction of computers with rich graphical capacities and the

In order to satisfy the information needs of the intended receivers information design comprises analysis, planning, presentation and understanding of a message—its content, language and form. Regardless of the selected medium, a well designed information material will satisfy aesthetic, economic, ergonomic, as well as subject matter requirements. Information design is a multi-disciplinary, multidimensional and worldwide consideration with influences from areas such as language, art and aesthetics, information, communication, behaviour and cognition, business and law, as well as media production technologies. This paper has two main sections. The first section, Literacies, presents views on literacy. The second section, Information Design, presents several views on information design. As a discipline information design has three main areas of knowledge: (1) infography, (2) infology, and (3) infodidactics. Information design encompasses studies of the way a representation