Recognizing that the rapid progress of communication and computer technologies is making designers out of all of us, whether we like it or not and whether we're trained or not, he explains that we do not have to be skilled artists to use visual language. In addition, and perhaps more important from a pedagogical standpoint, he argues that even though we may readily understand this new language and be able to use it quite naturally and due to the available technologies, using it effectively may not be natural and may require instruction. For Horn, the future is now. Because the future is now, Horn sees teachers' roles as essential ones. His book is a rich source of information and ideas.
Visual information provides the records of human history.
On each page, I found myself encountering discussions of features of a language I had seen but not understood clearly before. I recommend Horn's book for every technical communicator. I have the urge to say that Horn goes where no one has gone before, but I won't. Instead, I'll say without hesitation that he takes us further and into different spaces than those who have come before, even Edward Tufte, who opened my eyes to many concepts pertaining to visual information with his trilogy of books. She understood the need to integrate the verbal and visual.