Because of that, and because humans assimilate visual data far more rapidly than verbal or numeric, the heart and soul of Smith's technique is visual. Paramount is the overall vision, that big picture. Everything stems from it, works to it, and is guided and impelled by it. Smith also emphasises intuition, which he says is a tool either ignored or greatly under-used in business. This emphasis on the visual and the inclusion of the intuitive also means that his technique compels lateral rather than linear thinking.
Visual planning is used all the time by architects.
When they are planning a house they use symbols for baths, doors and so on. Ideas are thus represented diagrammatically, in a clear and concise form. The genius of the technique is in how those are used to compel a high level of creativity, lateral thinking, and rigorous method. Trying to describe the visual in words is never easy, but the first step in APT is to identify that all-important big picture and render it as a simple icon. That can then be broken down quickly into its major and minor components, which are also rendered visually.