Center for Visual Learning

Understanding "Wicked Problems"

One dimension of Bob Horn's work deals with complex public policy issues. He sometimes cals them ill-structured problems and more informally "social messes." These problems are characterized by:

complicated, complex, and ambiguous
uncertainty even as to what the problems are, let alone what the solutions might be
great constraints
tightly interconnected, economically, socially, politically, technologically
seen differently from different points of view, and quite different worldviews
contain many value conflicts
are often a-logical or illogical

Bob's Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century is a pioneering description of a world where words+pictures replace words alone, eradicating misunderstanding and confusion along the way. A must-read.

When he's not teaching at Stanford, writing books, solving "wicked problems," or mapping "great debates," Bob and Internet Time Group equip corporations with visual thinking tools and assistance understanding thorny issues.

Bob described hypertext and information architecture several years before the advent of the web. He also invented information mapping.