"Being pretty" is a must for great usability. I am not talking about decoration which is superficial, but the real prettiness which comes from having clear layo

"Being pretty" is a must for great usability. I am not talking about decoration which is superficial, but the real prettiness which comes from having clear layout, visual hierarchy, well thought-out typography, etc. To borrow from Steve Jobs: design is how it works. There is not much to "work" on useit.com, but there definitely is a room for improvement (layout, typography, focus, etc), now it is just two columns with bunch of links. See for example http://alistapart.com/ http://alistapart.com/ — for me it is still has the best design for content-oriented site. It is very pretty and at the same time all that prettiness has a function.