In my review of Horton’s earlier book [1], I commented upon the author’s emphasis on design effort, and said such a viewpoint was justified for much the same reasons that I have emphasized design in my writing on software development. Since he is a consistent and thorough documentation specialist, it came as no surprise that Horton’s latest work has a similar emphasis.

This unusual book is aimed at a specific market. The preface accurately describes this book as being “about authoring images, about communicating, about making things understandable.” It is divided into 15 chapters, each of which is short and specific. In the beginning, a five-page section discusses why many graphics are bad; a general discussion on “visual thinking and creativity” and “the language of graphics” follows. These welcome and thoughtful discussions are unusual in such a book and should stimulate creative thinking among graphic artists.

Later chapters explain the best way of showing processes, procedures, and organization. Icons can of course be helpful, but they are ill-suited to the purposes mentioned, which can benefit more from tables, menu maps, various diagrams, or even checklists (which are old-fashioned but sometimes appropriate).

Only a single chapter specifically discusses displaying graphics online, and it is excellent. The main body of the book, however, is aimed at, and of benefit to, those who design offline paper documentation. In spite of all the hype, manuals are important, and bad ones have indeed sunk ships.

Not being an expert on the graphic applications of color, I cannot directly vouch for the accuracy of Horton’s comments, but his arguments about cultural and organizational sensitivities seem sensible. On the negative side, the publisher emblazons the cover with “special 4-color graphics section included”; this section turns out to be two pages of color samples printed on heavy stock, which add little of significance to the text. Fortunately, further material on creating complex enriched graphics and a discussion of the “page as picture” follow the color pages.

I could quibble with the book, in that it seems meant to serve as a self-documenting example of the style Horton advocates. In general, it demonstrates that style beneficially, but the wide margins are sometimes so crowded with ancillary material that they distract readers from the main text. While I find this irritating, others may not. Horton’s examples of graphics are excellent.

Finally, the book has an unusually thorough bibliography of some 350 citations and a complete index. Remember that this book is full of thought and concepts, not recipes. As such, it is best read by graphic artists, documentation specialists, and technical writers. These people had better not miss it.