I found some excellent articles at Chromatic Sites Web Technology on developing professional Web sites that I think all of the Web development students should read.

The first article focuses on the process of great Web design and details the three stages: conceptualization and planning, modeling, and execution.

The process of web design can be compared to the process of writing a research paper. In the conceptualization/planning stage, flowcharts (the outline) are created which illustrate the navigational structure of your website. In the modeling stage, static wireframes are created (the rough draft) which illustrate the skeletal layout for each section of your website. After the wire frames are created, graphics, colors and text are used to create the design of your web pages based on the layout of the wire frames. In the execution stage, your design is converted into a format supported by web browsers, text and content are added, and finally, your website is published live to the Internet for the world to see (final draft).

All three stages of the design process are equally important. Many web designers skip a stage in order to save time or because they don’t think that is is necessary. However, all three stages are necessary if your goal is to create a successful design and respectable website. Even if the three stages are used, there are many mistakes that web designers can make that will lead to poor-quality, non user-friendly websites. It’s time to clean out the cabinet of bad web design practices and restock it with the good ones.

Read the rest of Dos and Donts Guide to Great Web Design

The second article outlines the 12 steps to creating a professional Web design.

1. Multi-stage web design process
2. Project collaboration tools (if project has more than one person involved)
3. High-quality design
4. Attention to detail
5. Current web design technology (CSS)
6. Well written, interesting, grammatically-correct content
7. Usability
8. XHTML and CSS validation (clean code)
9. Standards-compliant
10. Optimization
11. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly
12. Abuse of Flash, Javascript, and sound effects

Although there is no “one size fits all” process to creating a website, there are a number of things a website designer must do to create a professional web design and website.

Read the 12 Steps to Creating a Professional Web Design.

Be sure to check out the rest of Chromatic’s excellent articles.