The best DIY'er resource is at
www.johnbridge.com
The guy who sponsers that website has a huge team of pros that answer questions. He has also written several books specific to that subject. Their "liberry" has a detailed instructions on conventional shower construction, and many of those instructions are good for the basics.
I've used Kerdi a little, and would seriously consider it for a new shower of my own. Neat stuff. By putting a waterproof membrane just under the tile, the cbu (which isn't used in this) nor the deck mud ever gets wet so the shower dries out much faster. You can build all of the walls out of regular drywall. If your floor is the size of one of their preformed pans, you can use that, or make your own out of deck mud. Then cover it with the Kerdi membrane. Then tile.