161–170 of 247 posts
Maybe I am just really, really old at this point, but sending emails in plain text solves all these problems. I don't think I've ever received an HTML email that couldn't have been adequately represented in plain text and maybe an attached image if necessary.
You've never received data that needed to be displayed as a table? If plain text email was the end-all, then instant messenger and SMS would have killed email a long time ago.
GMail, we need to talk. We need to talk about how substring searches do not work, 11 years after your launch. We need to talk about how you've slowly engineered out everything that was good and unique about GMail. We need to talk about how you "flattened" the style, removed colors from threaded messages, and just decided to use shades of grey everywhere. We need to talk about how difficult it is to tell one message f…
You can still use the "Basic HTML" layout for GMail. It's actually pretty great. It doesn't look "modern", but if you ask me it's more usable. https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=h
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On my phone, if I type in the name of a store, it gives me the most popular store of that name in the United States instead of the nearest one, because I have wifi locaiton turned off. That's the only reason. If I turn it back on (I don't want it on), the results are sorted as expected. This is clearly an intentional anti-pattern, and it's been there for over two years. I have to actually type, for example: "Fry's el…
>On my phone, if I type in the name of a store, it gives me the most popular store of that name in the United States instead of the nearest one, because I have wifi locaiton turned off. That's the only reason. If I turn it back on (I don't want it on), the results are sorted as expected. I'm assuming you do have GPS location turned on, and that you're allowing location access on that page and waiting for a GPS lock b…
IP addresses are usually enough to get to the right city.
Google: First 6, 7 years, one great product after another. Since then: Slow death by "product manager", or whatever the hell they call it. (In league, I suspect in my personal opinion, with some cabal of out-of-control graphic "designers". Though this is hardly the only problem.)
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Marketing emails are not the only ones that developers want to look not broken. To pick an instance at random: Confirmation emails for purchases made, especially if they have tickets as an attachments. If this email looks broken, customer thinks it's phishing or something, and might end up trashing it, just because styling is not supported consistently. And I take issue with your argument of "marketing emails are bad…
Why is that email using HTML? Hello there! Thanks for purchasing X for $Y. Your tax invoice is attached. Here's where you can track your delivery: http://example.com/tracking Thanks!
A newsletter will multiple items will need headings (for people to scan through if they're short on time), a paragraph for people who need more details. Images, if the articles require them, also help.
Corporate email - not just advertisements, but also invoices, notifications, as such, almost always require some sort of branding. Customers expect them - a plain text email might be regarded as phishing or fake. And why force people to open up an attachment when HTML exists and can mark up those elements perfectly well?
Email also need to carry information of less importance - unsubscribe links, confidentiality notices, signatures, most of which are required by law or lawyers, but which can be made smaller or greyed out so they can be ignored when reading.
You can't do any of the above with plain text. What you need is markup, which guess what, HTML is.
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Maps has really become a chore to use, too. I remember getting directions used to be easy once and now it's like interacting with enterprise software.
What? If you left-click in a place, a small card appears with an arrow that you can click to get directions. If you right-click, you can get directions from or to the place. And if you search, you also get a very visible round button with an arrow and the label "Directions". How is it hard? EDIT: Sorry if this came out as aggressive. I'm just dumbfounded, that's all.
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Such a minimalist design may work for some products/brands. But just as many companies, especially companies that put a lot of focus on brand management, may want nice images and responsive design. It's not an unreasonable request. Even if it's not as effective for click-through/customer re-engagement/etc. you should let the customer decide on what kind of emails they want. Data will prove if nice images and ads are…
I disagree. If you don't want your email to look the way Gmail displays it, use a different client. I don't want a million configurations for how I could possibly have my mail displayed. Show me a good option. If I don't like it, I'll use a different option. That being said, one thing I really miss in Gmail compared to other options is being able to do things like sort by the sender and that sort of thing. Instead I…
For consumers, gmail should provide the optimal email experience- if they don't like it, they have the choice to use a different product.
But for developers, gmail should provide as many tools and as much functionality to meet developers need. That way developers build, Google profits.
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What? If you left-click in a place, a small card appears with an arrow that you can click to get directions. If you right-click, you can get directions from or to the place. And if you search, you also get a very visible round button with an arrow and the label "Directions". How is it hard? EDIT: Sorry if this came out as aggressive. I'm just dumbfounded, that's all.
On my phone, if I type in the name of a store, it gives me the most popular store of that name in the United States instead of the nearest one, because I have wifi locaiton turned off. That's the only reason. If I turn it back on (I don't want it on), the results are sorted as expected. This is clearly an intentional anti-pattern, and it's been there for over two years. I have to actually type, for example: "Fry's el…
I also liked the one period of time I used to type in my US zip code for Movie Showtimes and somehow be routed to theatres and showtimes in a town outside Naples, Italy. This was on a desktop, not a phone.
Not the biggest deal in the world but it seems every useful thing Google comes up with seems to degrade in quality over time and increase in complexity.
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I know this is an extreme but I like this extreme. When I say plain text, I mean plain-text. I mean not even markdown. Just plain text. The client can choose to make links clickable if they like. Any formatted document should come as an attachment (I'd prefer PDF). I guess it should be an attachment I expect or I probably wouldn't open it. In any case, I don't like emails with tracking. It feels forced. If you really…
How about RFC 1896 text/enriched? http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1896
If we must track users, perhaps we can just give them a link they can visit?
What do you think about using attachments for documents where formatting is essential?
Maybe I am just really, really old at this point, but sending emails in plain text solves all these problems. I don't think I've ever received an HTML email that couldn't have been adequately represented in plain text and maybe an attached image if necessary.
You've never received data that needed to be displayed as a table? If plain text email was the end-all, then instant messenger and SMS would have killed email a long time ago.
Actually not that often. If the formatting is critical to the email, don't write it in an email. Send me a PDF.