I will discuss the combinatorics of the noncrossing partition posets associated with Coxeter groups of rank three. In particular, I will describe the techniques used to prove the lattice property and lexicographic shellability. These properties can then be used to solve several problems on the corresponding Artin groups, such as the K(π,1) conjecture, the word problem, the center problem, and the isomorphism between standard and dual Artin groups. This is joint work with Emanuele Delucchi and Mario Salvetti.