A long time ago I worked at a company trying to commercialize a visual programming framework for general use. And before that I was on a team that built a visual programming environment to define simulation models for the largest flight/other simulation company in the world.
What I learned was that when a problem domain needed a visual representation they had already created it (using pencil and paper, decades ago). Think of schematic diagrams, piping and instrumentation diagrams and such. In those cases we were very successful. In cases where no such diagrams exist, we always failed to create one that stuck with the users. Text is great for code because is is extremely compact and takes advantage of things like visual rhyme. Uml, for example, can never achieve the same results
What I learned was that when a problem domain needed a visual representation they had already created it (using pencil and paper, decades ago). Think of schematic diagrams, piping and instrumentation diagrams and such. In those cases we were very successful. In cases where no such diagrams exist, we always failed to create one that stuck with the users. Text is great for code because is is extremely compact and takes advantage of things like visual rhyme. Uml, for example, can never achieve the same results