Robert Horn
Robert Horn coined the term, "Visual Language," in (cite place here.)
His ![[WWW]](/wiki/classic/img/moin-www.png){kind=small}
Stanford web site contains links to much of his work, and a brief biography.
He authored a book, "Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century," (HornsVisualLanguageBook) that is published by a company he created- MacroVU. ( http://www.macrovu.com/) The book is particularly notable, in that it is written using the very VisualLanguage techniques he recommends.
He created a set of 7 posters: MappingGreatDebates. ( http://www.macrovu.com/CCTGeneralInfo.html)
While working on documentation, he created a system that he calls "InformationMapping" (Registered Trademark.) ( http://www.infomap.com/im_aboutus/overview/aboutus_history.htm)
There's an interesting interview of Robert Horn by "Design Matters," and another interview in New Horizons for Learning.
I got a chance to meet him at the conference at CMU last summer. Nice guy; you should drop him a line sometime, let him know about this wiki as soon as you feel it'll be interesting enough to catch his attention. I want to read his book sometime too. Here are my notes on his lecture. -- BayleShanks
The first time I met Bob Horn was in 1997 when he was brought into Boeing by some trainers in the corporate training organization (it's name has changed 47 times since then).
The trainers found me and wanted me to meet Dr. Horn as I was the "premier visual language user in Boeing" (their words). My response was "who is Robert Horn"???
Then I recalled that there was something called "InformationMapping" that had gone around the technical documentation circles in Boeing authored by Robert Horn (formerly of IBM) and I asked if he was the same guy... (he was) and I went to meet him anticipating I'd learn something important.
We had a lunch break together in some office cafeteria somewhere in Renton Washington, where I showed him what I was doing and he talked a little about Visual language. I was surprised at first that his emphasis was more on trying to define the "semantics" of the language - something I'd been through the knothole backwards with numerious data and process analysts/engineers as they'd long struggled to come up with some sort of "language" to accurately nail down the meanings of data entities and process behaviours used when modeling a system (all failures as humanity has the most annoying habit of "interpreting" things outside of rigid definitions").
So when Dr. Horn started going down the same path I found myself getting concerned that we were doing the same "trip".
We had a little difference of opinion rising out of my rabid use of cartoon art. It seemed to take him back a bit and he asked my "why cartoons?", "why not dress them up in a suit and tie, and give them some credibility...?" Since then he's become a proponent of cartoon art, but there has always been a popular suspicion of cartoon art as being rude and a source of disrespect to companies and people involve, so I understand his initial reservations.
Dr. Horn and I cross paths from time to time, as he supports various Boeing training efforts. I even appeared with him in a 1/2 hour training video once as we showed how some of the "home grown" Boeing visual language display efforts had panned out.
The Boeing trainers get me in on a lot of Dr. Horns "stuff" in Boeing as he comes across kind of dry (and academic) in his verbal presentations, so I'm either providing material or asked to comment (a little) to add some energy or controversy to the presentation. He talks a lot about what works, and I'm yammering away about why it works or why they need to try this or that approach.
The last time we spoke was through e-mail (fall 2003) as he was getting together some material to present in the Boeing Leadership Training Center in St. Louis. He found out I have a library or re-usable art components available online here inside the company, and he wanted a CD to give out to the participants in his sessions. I was in the process of re-organizing it, converting it from source vector art (1.4 gigs) to web and powerpoint files (300 megs), and it wasn't done yet, so what he saw was still pretty rough from the usability perspective. I've since completed the effort and it looks pretty good-so I'm ready for his next visit.
Dr. Horn and I don't always see eye to eye on everything, (he's focused on the language, while I'm more into team "thinking together" using pictures) but he's a good guy, and his visual language material puts things together more cleanly than anyone out there.