Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century

• Published in: Technical Communication Quarterly Vol. 9; no. 3; p. 351
• Main Author: Dubinsky, James M
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Taylor & Francis Ltd 01-07-2000
• Subjects: 21st century; Business Communication; Communication; Communication (Thought Transfer); Computers; Design; Grammar; Internet; Language; Language history; Multimedia; Reading; Semantics; Students; Syntax; Teacher Role; Technical Writing; Visualization; World Wide Web
• ISSN: 1057-2252; 1542-7625

On the first page, "Icon Bob," as I'll call him, is standing at the lower left, speaking to us intimately, defining visual language; on the last page, he has moved to the right of the page, standing behind a podium as part of an infomural (one of the "communication units" of visual language), lecturing to a large audience (of which we're now clearly members) about visual language's future. [...]we get more than just a first-person pronoun author; we get a fully formed clip-art version of the author "speaking to us," using speech bubbles much as comic strip characters do, throughout the book. Because the future is now, Horn sees teachers' roles as essential ones. In his book, he asks and answers a series of questions that we, as technical communicators and educators, need to understand if we want to help our students meet those challenges, questions such as "What is driving the emergence of visual language?" and "Why is the graphic computer so important?" His answers are not conclusive, but they are provocative, and they lead him to explain that if he "is right, then we need to learn the vocabulary, grammar, and semantics of this new language" (22). Readers unfamiliar with key figures such as William Playfair, the English political economist credited with "developing or improving many of the major numerical charts" (33), or Florence Nightingale (yes, that one), a "pioneer in social statistics and inventor of the polar area diagram" (38), will enjoy the tightly integrated and concise presentation here.