Recently, Headscape User Experience Consultant Leigh Howells wrote a piece on Boagworld about his first experiences with website personas. Whilst brief, this article does a good job at providing an overview of why we need personas throughout the design lifecycle and what each persona should include.

Leigh also includes a Powerpoint 97-2003 template to download which I've linked to below.

Download the PowerPoint template of this persona

Read the full article at Boagworld

Sitepoint have started a series providing an overview of the real world web design process... and as with all of Sitepoint's content, it's articulate, engaging and a very well informed piece, well worth a read.

The first part outlines the discovery process whereby the first step is to gather information from the client. The second part of the web design process falls under Information Architecture and and how to understand and synthesise your findings from the discovery phase.

All told, this is a great read for every beginner wishing to get a foothold on how web design 'should' be done.