The latest UIE tips newsletter (by UIE - User Interface Engineering) has a pointer to an article by Luke Wroblewski, titled "Visible Narratives: Understanding Visual Organization". The article is nearly four years old, and I haven't finished reading it, but from my initial skim, it seems like a good introduction, particularly for programmer types trying to get a handle on visual design issues. For other folks, it will seem like old hat.
The article is at http://www.uie.com/articles/visible_narratives/.
I have no association with UIE, but I find that their newsletter helps me keep usability issues in mind, since it's not my primary job focus.
Regards,
Gary
PS I'm not entirely sure this is appropriate, but since so few of the developers I know have had any training on usability, my inclination is to promote useful resources like this article until told otherwise.