Barriers to the Adoption of Visual Knowledge Management Tools: Challenges at the Intersection of Technology, People, and Process
Stephen Ryan · 2025
Visual Knowledge Management Tools (VKMTs) have gained attention for their ability to support knowledge capture, organization, and communication in fields such as software engineering, process design, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Despite their theoretical advantages, adoption across academia and industry remains inconsistent. This paper explores the barriers hindering VKMT adoption through a systematic literature review of 38 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2024. Key challenges were identified and thematically grouped into five categories: technological, organizational, human, economic, and cultural. The findings reveal that while many barriers are common to general technology adoption, others—such as visual complexity, lack of interoperability, and visual literacy gaps—are more specific to VKMTs. To support further research and practice, we provide a descriptive summary of the literature base, outline the methodological approach, and offer a structured framework of adoption barriers. Practical recommendations are offered for stakeholders seeking to implement VKMTs, along with suggestions for future empirical work to bridge the gap between potential and application.