I think programming doesn't exactly come natural to most people atm. I think what needs to be done is some kind of virtual reality thing, where people can design the way they used to, the same way they'd build a piece of furniture, and their actions in that virtual world will be translated into code. So something like foldit for instance, but much more immersive, where people can manipulate molecules and pathways etc. in 3D.
While the visual display allows for better and more intuitive manipulation, the reality is that is not necessary or sufficient. The limiting rate is the mathematics of it. While dealing with higher dimensional calculations, geometric familiarity is not a source of improvement. In the future, commercial applications may appear to harness this for products but for scientific advancement is unnecessary.
Thanks for passing by.