Rating: 
Summary: The missing piece of Information Mapping®
Review: As a trained and active Information Mapping® practitioner I have come to respect Mr. Horn's genius. This book cements my respect and builds upon his impressive accomplishments in the field of verbal (and now visual) communications. The approach in the book, like Information Mapping® itself, takes some getting used to. Moreover, it can produce some visually ugly pages. In fact, I almost discarded the book based on some of the examples within, but discovered that these eyesores actually did communicate concepts and facts. What makes this book important is the equal importance placed on words, images and shapes, and the recipe for integrating them into a highly visual communications medium. It also provided me with some deep insights about the cognitive aspects of shapes, colors and symbols. If you are looking for a book on page layout and design look elsewhere. If you're an Information Mapping® practitioner, this book will nicely dovetail with the principles of information chunking and integrating graphics that are inherent in that method. I have gained much from this book and have already used the techniques to good effect in a few recent projects. It earns 5 stars in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Breaking New Ground and Raising New Issues
Review: Bob Horn's book is an amazing examination of a very important communications phenomenon. Here are the important questions it explores in depth:1. Is visual language enough of a language-like phenomenon for us to treat it like a language? 2. Is visual language an emerging international auxiliary language? 3. Does it have a new kind of syntax, a visual-verbal syntax? 4. Does meaning emerge from it in the kinds of semantics that the book surveys (especially functional semnatics)? 5. Are the actual uses (access to complex issues, illumination of cross-boundary issues, exploring deeper connections, displaying problem analysis, contributing to creativity, presenting multiple points of view, etc) as important to organizations and professionals as Horn suggests? 6. Is there a new and different kind of "multimodal" reading required for reading visual language, and what does this imply? 7. Are Horn's suggestions of the potential future impacts of visual language on our culture, education, and communication important? Horn's treatment of all these questions is serious and of great importance to any professional who communicates because of the current and future importance of these topics. Some reviewers have objected to the fact that it is not explicitly a "how to" book, although the examples on every page are wonderfully suggestive of possibilities in visual language. But, of course, Horn didn't set out to write a "how to" book, but a "keep your eye on the important events" book. And not everybody will like Horn's choice of style in clip art. The main thing is to keep your eye on the main questions the book addresses.
Rating:
Summary: A rich feast of visiual information
Review: Each page is a delight to the eye and provides deep insight into complex ideas and issues. Horn uses visual language as a tool for mapping out ideas in ways that allows us to digest in hours complex issues that might otherwise have taken weeks. The book is a wonder example of his art and craft bringing together words and pictures into a rich visual language that simplify and illuminate complexity. Through this work he proves his point that visual language is more efficient and effective at conveying complex ideas and situations than conventional methods of communication. I believe that visual language will change the world by making information more accessible and providing us with the tools for making sense of the information we need to live in an information rich environment.
Rating: 
Summary: A little too verbose
Review: Great concept put forth very well. But the book lacked practical examples and how to implement these concepts, too academic. I felt that the book should have been about half the size. Graphical examples were less professional than I expected, a little to "clip art" in nature.
Rating: 
Summary: Diverse Specialists Recognize the Book
Review: I'm Bob Horn, currently a visiting scholar at the Program on People, Computers, and Design, The Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. I believe we have a new language emerging all around the world, one that is rapidly becoming an international auxiliary language (which you use in addition to your natural language). What has intrigued me is the appreciation the book has received from an incredibly diverse group of people. Winograd is a computer scientist. Saffo is one of the world's most quoted futurists. Horton is a leading researcher in technical writing, the web, and graphics. Cleveland is an ex-University President and magazine editor. Sibbet is an extraordinarily gifted organizational consultant and information designer. Shaw is a professor of French and an expert on visual poetry. Here's what they say. "NEW SYNTHESIS" (TERRY WINOGRAD) In this book Bob Horn has brought together the depth of his years of experience in information design with a wealth of research on the history and practice of visual languages. The result is a new synthesis: a way of thinking about visual language that integrates and extends the different elements on which he draws. It may come to be, as he predicts, the starting point for a new field of study that develops the "global language for the 21st century". -Terry Winograd, Professor, Stanford University. Program on People, Computers, and Design "EMINENTLY PRACTICAL GUIDE" (PAUL SAFFO) This is an insightful and eminently practical guide to the emergent visual language field. And better yet, because Horn practices what he preaches, it is as useful to newcomers as to visual language professionals. -Paul Saffo, Director, Institute For The Future. CONFRONTS THE THREE BIG LIES ABOUT GRAPHICS Bob Horn gets it! His book confronts three big lies about graphics: 1) That pictures are just decoration. 2) That only artists can create effective graphics. 3) That words and pictures are enemies. And his book walks the talk! It integrates visual elements and text;it uses simple clip art; and shows-while-it-tells, and tells-while-it-shows. -William Horton. Author of Illustrating Computer Documentation, The Icon Book, Designing and Writing Online Documentation; and Web Page Design Cookbook "INDISPENSABLE INSIGHTS" (HARLAN CLEVELAND) When we read, most of us expect that the words themselves will conjure up whatever images we need to understand the story. But Bob Horn is a new kind of writer. He writes about Visual Language in visual language -- using words and pictures to reinforce each other. The result is charming, fascinating, and readily accessible. It's also full of indispensable insights for anyone who will want to communicate in the 21st Century. From now on we'll know - because Bob Horn has shown us the way - that words and pictures are two sides of the same coin. -Harlan Cleveland, President, World Academy of Arts and Sciences "UNIQUELY ACCESSIBLE, COMPREHENSIVE" (DAVID SIBBET) Bob Horn's creation of a uniquely accessible, comprehensive orientation to the visual language explosion is transforming contemporary communications around the world. Each page is a demonstration making this book a remarkably rich source of ideas for information designers, graphic facilitators, or anyone interested in understanding how important visual language is in our era. - David Sibbet, Organization consultant and information designer "HIGHLY ORIGINAL, USER-FRIENDLY RESOURCE"(MARY SHAW) In 1917, Apollinaire, the poet of modernism, wrote: "Man is in search of a new language.... We must learn to understand synthetico-ideographically rather than analytico-discursively." Robert E. Horn's Visual Language is the first book I know of to respond to this call in a global sense. It will help all sorts of readers begin to understand our world's proliferation of ever more tightly integrated images, shapes, and words. Scholars and teachers from fields as divergent as business, literature, and art history will find in Horn's work a highly original, user-friendly resource, providing basic facts, and a big picture yet to be articulated anywhere else. I, for one, will resort to it often, with students of poetic language, to show how deeply meaning itself can be seen as a matter of form." - Mary L. Shaw, Professor, Modern languages, Rutgers University
Rating: 
Summary: A new low for an otherwise brilliant author
Review: If you have had any exposure to Information Mapping methods or Mr. Horn's other works, then you expect coherent, insightful quality from a genuinely great mind. Mr. Horn's past leadership and insight makes this particular work disconcerting, to say the least. I have spoken with at least 12 professional writers about this book (conservative estimate), and the reaction is always the same - what went wrong here? Most pages pose a challenge to the principles of basic information design. The main thread of textual development is often buried in excessive graphics. Mr. Horn appears to have forgotten that half of his title is "Language," with implications of coherent linguistic expression. The book falls way short of such coherence. Read the criticisms of this book well. They are well founded. In Mr. Horn's defense, I will say that his thesis seems quite valid, and for that reason alone, I recommend the book. The problem is following the thesis development. If Mr. Horn intended his book to be an actual model of successful "global communication," then I dare say that intercultural relations of the 21st century are in for some confusing times.
Rating:
Summary: A new low for an otherwise brilliant author
Review: If you have had any exposure to Information Mapping methods or Mr. Horn's other works, then you expect coherent, insightful quality from a genuinely great mind. Mr. Horn's past leadership and insight makes this particular work disconcerting, to say the least. I have spoken with at least 12 professional writers about this book (conservative estimate), and the reaction is always the same - what went wrong here? Most pages pose a challenge to the principles of basic information design. The main thread of textual development is often buried in excessive graphics. Mr. Horn appears to have forgotten that half of his title is "Language," with implications of coherent linguistic expression. The book falls way short of such coherence. Read the criticisms of this book well. They are well founded. In Mr. Horn's defense, I will say that his thesis seems quite valid, and for that reason alone, I recommend the book. The problem is following the thesis development. If Mr. Horn intended his book to be an actual model of successful "global communication," then I dare say that intercultural relations of the 21st century are in for some confusing times.
Rating:
Summary: A new low for an otherwise brilliant author
Review: If you have had any exposure to Information Mapping or Mr. Horn's other works, then you expect coherent, insightful quality from a genuinely great mind like that of Robert E. Horn. Perhaps it is Mr. Horn's reputation that scared the hell out of this book's editor(s), because the editor(s) really dropped the ball with this book. I have not seen a more confusing, visually cluttered, nearly incoherent presentation of information in quite awhile - perhaps ever. Mr. Horn appears to have forgotten that half of his title is "Language," with implications of coherent linguistic expression. Instead, Mr. Horn focuses on "Visual," complete with the most ragtag assembly of nearly random clip art I have ever seen. 90%+ of the space on every single page is so dominated by overly done graphics that it is genuinely difficult to get at the main thread. It's a page by page struggle. Read the criticisms of this book well. They are well founded. I have discussed this book with at least a dozen professional writers (technical genre), and they are all profoundly disappointed with this work without exception. I certainly am. Still, you may want to purchase a copy, just to keep up with developments that affect writers in general, and technical authors in particular. The simple thesis of this book is quite valid.
Rating:
Summary: A new low for an otherwise brilliant author
Review: If you have had any exposure to Information Mapping or Mr. Horn's other works, then you expect coherent, insightful quality from a genuinely great mind like that of Robert E. Horn. In this case, I have not seen a more confusing, visually cluttered, nearly incoherent presentation of information in quite awhile - perhaps ever. Mr. Horn appears to have forgotten that half of his title is "Language," (with implications of coherent linguistic expression). Instead, Mr. Horn focuses on "Visual," complete with the most ragtag assembly of nearly random clip art I have ever seen. 90%+ of the space on every page is so dominated by overly done graphics that it is genuinely difficult, I mean REALLY difficult, to get at the main thread. It's a page by page struggle. Read the criticisms of this book well. They are well founded. I have discussed this book with at least a dozen professional writers (technical genre), and they are all profoundly disappointed with this work without exception.
Rating:
Summary: A new low for an otherwise brilliant author
Review: If you have had any exposure to Information Mapping or Mr. Horn's other works, then you expect coherent, insightful quality from a genuinely great mind like that of Robert E. Horn. Perhaps it is Mr. Horn's reputation that scared the hell out of this book's editor(s), because the editor(s) really dropped the ball with this book. I have not seen a more confusing, visually cluttered, nearly incoherent presentation of information in quite awhile - perhaps ever. Mr. Horn appears to have forgotten that half of his title is "Language," with implications of coherent linguistic expression. Instead, Mr. Horn focuses on "Visual," complete with the most ragtag assembly of nearly random clip art I have ever seen. 90%+ of the space on every single page is so dominated by overly done graphics that it is genuinely difficult to get at the main thread. It's a page by page struggle. Read the criticisms of this book well. They are well founded. I have discussed this book with at least a dozen professional writers (technical genre), and they are all profoundly disappointed with this work without exception. I certainly am. Still, you may want to purchase a copy, just to keep up with developments that affect writers in general, and technical authors in particular. The simple thesis of this book is quite valid.
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