Markus Török

In my last post I mentioned Inspiration as a topic for this article. I thought of talking about some lists and galleries where you could find inspirational website designs, screenshot tools, and how to find inspiration outside the web. This would have been my former inspiration-finding process.

I went through lists and galleries, picked those designs i liked best and mashed them up to my own design. I just knew that I liked those designs, but I didn’t know why I liked them, why they were working. I had no idea of the fundamental principles of good design.

This time I want to start with the fundamentals. I want to know the reasons behind good design, and I’m going to start with typography. I think typography will be of particular importance for this blog. People should come here and read my articles, therefore my posts should be easy to read. I’ve started my research by reading the typography chapter of Mark Boultons book Five Simple Steps. Other resources I found helpful are:

• The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web
• Compose to a Vertical Rhythm

If you could recommend any further typography ressources I would be glad to hear from these in the comments.

The next thing I’m going to do is to set typographic hierarchy. I will set font-sizes and styles for all the typographic elements I’ll be using on this website. Furthermore I’ll have to find a way to change the default WordPress template step by step – so that the development process will be comprehensible. I thought the design in the browser approach would be best for that purpose.

I’m hoping next time I can present you a slightly different website.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free web analytics application which is easy to use and has lots of advanced features. Since my blog is running on WordPress I used the Google Analytics WordPress plugin.

Installing the WordPress plugins is easy. Just download the plugin, unzip it and upload it via FTP to the wp-content/plugins folder in your WordPress installation. Afterwards you login to your WordPress dashboard, go to plugins and activate your new plugin. After you activated the plugin you have to go to the plugin settings and enter the Analytics Account ID. To get this ID you have to add a new Website Profile in your Google Analytics settings. You’ll find the link at the end of your Google Analytics overview page.

Now you have to enter the URL of your WordPress blog to create a new Website Profile. You’ll find the ID on your overview page – it’s beginning with UA-. Here is a video showing where to find the ID.

After you entered the ID your blog will be trackable.

• A Guide to Google Analytics and Useful Tools