I subscribe to a pragmatic view of Art and Experience, as proposed by John Dewey.  I believe that within a species, and getting more granular as we work down from species to culture, to race, to sex to age etc...we can focus our visual language around the experiences that a targeted user or user group share.  This approach is based on the way that our brains stereotype visual aspects of an experience.

For example, we've all encountered an acute angle that caused pain and injury at some point in our lives and probably multiple times.  When we had this experience, our brain in an effort to promote survival catalogued the visual and physical aspects of the object that we interacted with and created a stereotype in our memory that sets off alarms whenever we encounter that same visual stimulus again.  I believe it is why we are able to survive an otherwise very hostile world and we we don't have to experience every thing for the first time again and again.

Visual designer, fluent in visual language can exploit these stereotypes in two and three-dimensional design to create physiological and psychological reactions in the viewer.  When the viewer encounters a picture plane that depicts acute angles, he or she may not realize it, but subconsciously he or she will feel increased tension or a sense of danger.

This approach creates a pathway for research into the user group and let's the designer dig as deep as he or she wants to understand how his user will respond to manipulations of the elements of design.  Combine this with research in to cultural specific patterns and symbols and the designer is well on the way to constructing something that is meaningful and easily decodable to the target audience.