August 22, 2007 at 01:49Email is not a place for design
- Transfer
Note: the translation of Jeffrey Zeldman 's article “E-mail is not a platform for design” is below . It discusses ongoing support from email clients for HTML markup of emails. The article is largely controversial and controversial.
After so many years of prosperity on the Internet, HTML emails still cause a lot of disgust ( still sucks ). You might think that I mean “HTML emails do not display correctly in some email clients” However, this is only part of the truth. Companies spend hundreds of hours of simple typesetters to create HTML markups that may not work in Eudora or Gmail, or may stop displaying in Outlook .
Even in those programs that support the visualization of this "junk" code, which is able to create a normal HTML view for writing in them, all the hard work can go to waste if the user says " do not display letters in HTML format" in the settings .
As for CSS , it is only partially supported in some email applications and on the Web (for example, in Gmail), but only if the author of the layout uses non-semantic markup by tables and bulky code filled with descriptions of CSS styles. It is like using a broken refrigerator to store food at room temperature.
When I say HTML letters are disgusting, I don’t mean that now the visual support in letters is at the level of support for web standards by browsers back in 1998.
I say that they are disgusting because no one needs them. They interfere more than they really help communication.
Email was invented so that people can quickly exchange text messages over fast, or slow, or really slow Internet connections, using simple, non-processor-loading applications on any computing platform, or using phones or portable devices, or almost everything that can display text and what you can print on.
That was the email destination. This is exactly the task with which he is called to cope and does a wonderful job.
Email is not a place for design. Unlike the Web, which also began as a medium for text messaging, but which benefited from the introduction of pictures and multimedia applications, email works well in its original form, as the very foundation of text-sharing systems.
Email “with design” is just a more elegant version of the messages that your uncle sends you. Your uncle thinks that the text, written in bright red Comic Sans font size of 18pt, looks great, so he sends his letters written in this way. You will be speechless, or just take a breath, or rush to write scripts to automatically format each message in a readable form. If your uncle is a “designer”, then you “understand” why letters with added styles are disgusting. They are much more terrible if you create their design yourself, even if they look better than your uncle’s work in two email clients that display them correctly.
Even though this does not work correctly in many email applications, despite the fact that many users do not like it, HTML attracts the attention of customers, because this is another place where you can attach their logo. He attracts attention as a designer who thinks that everything , even a bullet shooting his head, will look better if you embellish it. I hate people as much as I hate people who hate design. Such a designer dishonors the name of his profession, and he owes much to the funny contempt that many managers and entrepreneurs see as designers, art directors, and “creative” people in general.
To put it short: HTML for websites. CSS for websites. GIF and JPEG for websites.
Using only ASCII characters will permanently avoid inconvenience and apology.
Thanks to everyone who read the article, it provides interesting links to the current state of things in the field of HTML emails. I would be grateful for any comments on such a controversial issue.
Web Optimizator: checking the speed of loading sites
After so many years of prosperity on the Internet, HTML emails still cause a lot of disgust ( still sucks ). You might think that I mean “HTML emails do not display correctly in some email clients” However, this is only part of the truth. Companies spend hundreds of hours of simple typesetters to create HTML markups that may not work in Eudora or Gmail, or may stop displaying in Outlook .
Even in those programs that support the visualization of this "junk" code, which is able to create a normal HTML view for writing in them, all the hard work can go to waste if the user says " do not display letters in HTML format" in the settings .
As for CSS , it is only partially supported in some email applications and on the Web (for example, in Gmail), but only if the author of the layout uses non-semantic markup by tables and bulky code filled with descriptions of CSS styles. It is like using a broken refrigerator to store food at room temperature.
When I say HTML letters are disgusting, I don’t mean that now the visual support in letters is at the level of support for web standards by browsers back in 1998.
I say that they are disgusting because no one needs them. They interfere more than they really help communication.
Email was invented so that people can quickly exchange text messages over fast, or slow, or really slow Internet connections, using simple, non-processor-loading applications on any computing platform, or using phones or portable devices, or almost everything that can display text and what you can print on.
That was the email destination. This is exactly the task with which he is called to cope and does a wonderful job.
Email is not a place for design. Unlike the Web, which also began as a medium for text messaging, but which benefited from the introduction of pictures and multimedia applications, email works well in its original form, as the very foundation of text-sharing systems.
Email “with design” is just a more elegant version of the messages that your uncle sends you. Your uncle thinks that the text, written in bright red Comic Sans font size of 18pt, looks great, so he sends his letters written in this way. You will be speechless, or just take a breath, or rush to write scripts to automatically format each message in a readable form. If your uncle is a “designer”, then you “understand” why letters with added styles are disgusting. They are much more terrible if you create their design yourself, even if they look better than your uncle’s work in two email clients that display them correctly.
Even though this does not work correctly in many email applications, despite the fact that many users do not like it, HTML attracts the attention of customers, because this is another place where you can attach their logo. He attracts attention as a designer who thinks that everything , even a bullet shooting his head, will look better if you embellish it. I hate people as much as I hate people who hate design. Such a designer dishonors the name of his profession, and he owes much to the funny contempt that many managers and entrepreneurs see as designers, art directors, and “creative” people in general.
To put it short: HTML for websites. CSS for websites. GIF and JPEG for websites.
Using only ASCII characters will permanently avoid inconvenience and apology.
The discussion is closed
Thanks to everyone who read the article, it provides interesting links to the current state of things in the field of HTML emails. I would be grateful for any comments on such a controversial issue.
Web Optimizator: checking the speed of loading sites