Visual Design vs. Textual Design

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Useit.com: Jakob Nielsen's Website
For many, a bi-weekly bible on usability, unrelentingly focused on functional information products. For others, a source of controversy over methodology, inelegant design, and a general excuse to rant. Regardless, friends and foes still read the site on a regular basis. Straightforward and easy to understand, full of both good and bad Web site critiques.
Usability Experts Are from Mars; Graphic Designers Are from Venus
Curt Cloninger takes up the battle for designers in the onslaught of usability experts, taking issue with shortcomings in Jakob Nielsen's approach and offering some ideas as to why graphic designers have a hard time articulating their views in the face of the usability field's prescriptive but often ugly standards.
Reading Design
This debate foregrounds a discussion of the role of the technical writer vis-à-vis her audience. Does she design or does she write? Can she do both? And if so, what does that amount to? What does she need to know?

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