I totally agree on the visual approach! By looking at visuals instead of words we use a different part of our brain that fires different associations. In my experience it litteraly gives you more insight and stimulates creativity at the same time. I teach a visualisation class wherein I use the visualization process itself as an instrument for research as well. by acting out a scene with some people and taking pictures from multiple perspectives you really get into the scene and start to understand the point of view of each of the stakeholders. If you are interested, here’s the class blog: Setting the scene | Exploratory Sketching