Technical writing, usability, GUI design, and how they fit together - your opinion is needed

[Robert Fekete <fekete77 -dot- robert -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Dear Wise Ones,

At the company I work at - mostly a techwriter - I ran into a
difficult situation, and would greatly appreciate your collective
input and experience on it.

Currently, GUI design is mostly left to our developers, who usually
come up with less than usable interfaces, probably because they are
programmers and think like programmers, ignoring the users' point of
view. My fellow techwriter and me keep complaining about the sloppy
interface designs and usability, but can't really get our message
across: the interface should be designed by someone thinking as a
user, and working closely with the techwriters to make the GUI labels
understandable. (Correcting interface texts is important because the
English skills of our developers leave room for improvement (mine as
well, but that's a different problem ).)

So, what is your experience?

As technical writers, what is your relationship to product usability
and GUI/interface design?
Which group/department is involved in UI design/usability at your company?
Who has the final word about the design (including GUI texts)?
Is there a dedicated UI designer / usability expert for each product?
How much control (language, and so on) do you (or someone else) have
over the plans / mockups?
At which point of the design do you review the interface, if ever?

We plan to use your answers to show "how other companies are doing it".

Thank you very for your help in advance.

Kind Regards,

Robert

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