This chapter is from the book
1.7 Visual Modeling is a Good Thing
At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, drawing or reading UML implies we are working more visually, exploiting our brain's strength to quickly grasp symbols, units, and relationships in (predominantly) 2D box-and-line notations.
This old, simple idea is often lost among all the UML details and tools. It shouldn't be! Diagrams help us see or explore more of the big picture and relationships between analysis or software elements, while allowing us to ignore or hide uninteresting details. That's the simple and essential value of the UMLor any diagramming language.