Zeldman On HTML Email
June 08, 2007
So, Mr. Zeldman recently wrote about how HTML e-mail sucks - and I totally agree with him. In my day to day work life, its amazing how many "professionals" think that 19Pt. Comic Sans colored bright pink is acceptable. My favorite quote?
"Designed" e-mail is just a slightly more polished version of those messages your uncle sends you. Your uncle thinks 18pt bright red Comic Sans looks great, so he sends e-mail messages formatted that way. You cluck your tongue, or sigh, or run de-formatting scripts on every message you receive from him. When your uncle is the "designer," you "get" why styled mail sucks. It sucks just as much when you design it, even if it looks better than your uncle's work in the two e-mail programs that support it correctly.So perfect. Now, you may view my epileptic poodle of bad design. Bonus points for including it in an HTML signature back to one of these "designers".
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4 Comments
| Tagged: HTML, Email, Internet
david 2007/06/10
I didn't go through all the (thousands?) of comments, but from what I read I think I align best with this guy's response (http://www.zeldman.com/2007/06/08/e-mail-is-not-a-platform-for-design/#comment-14532). Unfortunately it is true that "styled" emails have a much better ROI for companies that engage in marketing-related activities. It's a whole different story when relatives or friends do that, especially if it serves no purpose other than to look "cute".
Andy 2007/06/10
I agree with David. For one, Micro Center sends out HTML e-mails, and I have to say that they look pretty good. HTML in e-mails is great for companies IF the person designing the e-mail knows what the hell they're doing. It's like saying painting sucks based off of a three-year-old's painting. If a designer has designed the e-mail, it can look great and be a highly effective tool.
Jordan T. Cox 2007/06/13
#1, yes HTML e-mail may be able to be effectively styled. Totally true and I accept that. #2, what percentage is A) not effectively styled B) atrociously styled AND C) used for malicious purposes (OH ActiveX Components how I love thee!)? I believe that the comparison of a three-year-old's painting is effective. If 99% of the Earth's population was three. And published their works. And shoved their works down the throats of millions of people at a time. And 40% tried to give them AIDS in the process. And 20% tried to steal their bank account information. And ate they all ate cookies after baking them for other people.
On one hand, I hate spam. On the other hand, there's a sucker born every minute. True, HTML e-mail may have a higher ROI. However, I don't view e-mail as a medium that should have been sucked up by marketing. Maybe, if I didn't get THOUSANDS of spam messages every day I would consider marketing e-mail to be OK. As it stands, I waste at least 15% of my processor's time daily on determining what's marketing and what's not. So, it is a more effective form of evil. Should e-mail be subverted for such e-mail? I think not.
So Micro Center may send out useful HTML e-mails. Could they have been just as effective with an ASCII message? Thinkgeek sends out ASCII updates. Threadless sends out updates asking you to visit their site when they have promotions. I suppose that you guys are right, blinking lights and dancing bunnies[0] will always entice Joe Sixpack to click your link and possibly buy your product or infect their computer. My question though, is how effective is a well-designed HTML e-mail compared to a well-designed ASCII e-mail to the thinking public? Andy, would you be more likely to buy your $10 flash drive if it was on a beautifully styled page as compared to a nicely crafted ASCII message telling you about it IF it was an exclusive OR (you get HTML XOR ASCII, not both from competitors)?
Anyway, I think that we can agree - though - that bad design outweighs good when it comes to emails. What do you guys think?
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_bunnies
Jordan T. Cox 2007/06/13
I have no idea what happened to get that wikipedia entry renamed to Dancing Pigs. Nowhere near as cute as Dancing Bunnies.