Summary: Visual programming environments tend to fail because they aim to replace code syntax and logic that developers do not tend to visualize. Instead, developers focus on visualizing aspects like state transitions, memory layouts, or network requests. The author suggests that visual programming tools should start by addressing software aspects that developers already visualize. The article highlights the importance of visualizations in understanding complex software structures and suggests using tools like Sourcetrail for codebase visualization, treemaps for code size and complexity metrics, and state machine diagrams for modeling complex systems like payment interactions. By focusing on visualizing aspects developers already understand, visual programming tools can be more successful.
https://blog.sbensu.com/posts/demand-for-visual-programming/