A Short History on the Friction between Email and Design

If you use HTML in email, then this is a must read post.

You need to discover if you are using HTML in email wrong and then you need to learn how to use HTML in email right.

And trust me, you could be using it wrong because there are a lot of people using HTML in emails wrong, including big name corporations who you’d think would know better.

The following chronology occurred middle of this year. You’ll enjoy the banter, the back and forth bickering between these two web designers, that will make this HTML email lesson not only informative, but fun.

Read on.

June 8, 2007: My favorite potty-mouthed* rant on email versus design: email is not a platform for design.

June 12, 2007: Campaign Monitor’s response to Zeldman’s potty-mouthed rant + 5 steps to better html emails.

June 12, 2007: Jeffrey Zeldman responded to Campaign Monitor’s response over his potty-mouthed rant with a well thought out and much more modest post, Eight points for better e-mail relationships.

June 14: Zeldman lingers on the subject: Nokia is trying to cram a bad web page—the kind of web page that is all graphics and almost no textual content—into a container that can’t hold it.

July 5, 2007: Despite my desire for all text, I confess I am a sucker for this: showcase of elegant email designs that work. The reason they work: design frames the language…not the other way around.

Dig This from the Dustbin: October 2005: Designing Emails For the Preview Pane and Disabled Images

* Zeldman says “sucks” a lot, which my six-year old daughter says is a bad word.