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HTML Email Boilerplate

htmlemailboilerplate.com

51–60 of 113 posts

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#51
post #34
post #28

Please get rid of your browser evangelism, no matter how clever it might be. I know very well that I shouldn't be using Internet Explorer. If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't

Can I safely assume the downvotes are from those who think blocking the user's site interaction with a full screen lightbox is good UX?

I don't think I'd even mind so much if it weren't transparent, but it's pretty repulsive.

As some other commenters noted, the site tries really hard as well but 1300-px-wide content is awful in any light. It's just form, not function, but the irony from a site that pushes the uniform display of email and uses (web and email) resolutions that most users can't see without scrollbars isn't helping the message any.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#52
post #2

I'm not sure having an email be 900px wide (the table has 3 300px wide cells) is a good idea. Wouldn't that get a horizontal scrollbar on the iPad no matter the orientation? When it's horizontal there's a sidebar; when it's vertical it's only 768px wide.

MailChimp templates are all 600px wide, as a comparison, and that's what they recommend. It's annoying, since so many people have large monitors (notably me - so much white space around my drafts), BUT as you point out so many recipients are viewing emails on mobile devices (phone, tablet, even netbook-size laptops) as well as webmail clients and the Outlook preview pane.

Isn't it the browsers responsibility to figure out how to layout your content?

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#53
post #28

Please get rid of your browser evangelism, no matter how clever it might be. I know very well that I shouldn't be using Internet Explorer. If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't

IE8 screenshot. http://i.imgur.com/ZFDaO.png For the record, it works great in IE9.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#54

XHTML sucks. Transitional does even more. So does HTML mail. Use plaintext for god's sake.

I'll just pop upstairs to tell my bosses and upper managers that their waterfall charts of PnL for the quarter will be arriving as ascii art.

HTML email still handles that sort of thing poorly. I'd rather receive reports like that as PDF attachments. I can view those almost anywhere, and they're resizable.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#55
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which while i understand and concur with your hatred of unsolicited sales emails, is the point of them :) much the same as ads on TV, i don't want to see then but if im going to be forced to, at least don't make them offend my eyes, (not much can be said for badly designed marketing messages though)

If communication that you actually wanted to receive was sent in plain text then you could easily filter HTML email and be rid of it. Spammers aren't going to stop sending HTML mail because it is so useful for what they do, but no one else needs it.

This is incorrect. Just because spammers use HTML email doesn't mean HTML email is evil.

To give a very practical example, I sign up for newsletters from FontShop so I can be updated about new fonts. The email includes images to show how the fonts look. The utility of these emails would be drastically reduced if they were to use plain text.

Reference: http://www.fontshop.com/blog/newsletters/june2011a/

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#56
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is a scenario where you actually want your emails to convert to sales not necessary?

No. It's called spam and there is a special circle of hell reserved for people who send it. Keep that shit out of my inbox.

Do you have an issue with opt-in HTML emails?

I don't think this site is advocating spamming at all, nor do services designed to facilitate sending HTML emails (MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, etc.)

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#57
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MailChimp templates are all 600px wide, as a comparison, and that's what they recommend. It's annoying, since so many people have large monitors (notably me - so much white space around my drafts), BUT as you point out so many recipients are viewing emails on mobile devices (phone, tablet, even netbook-size laptops) as well as webmail clients and the Outlook preview pane.

Isn't it the browsers responsibility to figure out how to layout your content?

In a perfect world, yes.

In reality, you can't trust all browsers to behave the way standards dictate. If you're doing business online, through email, etc. you need to be able to reach as many people as possible and that may mean sending 600px wide emails instead of 900px.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and I are in the minority. Imagine if Groupon sent their daily flyer in plain text: Click-through would plummet.

I used to get Slashdot sent to me as plain text. It was a sheer delight to read and I really miss having it formatted that way. I would pay a premium for it. Maybe it is just that most people have never been exposed to properly formatted text emails? I'm sure people find most of the websites they visit and the emails they read, filled with columns of extra garbage, to be cumbersome and difficult to read. Executives t…

The reason those companies send HTML emails is because they convert better. It has nothing to do with "executives" liking them more. The deal and advertising businesses are very metrics driven and if text performed, they would use it. It doesn't do nearly as well, especially for products.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#59
post #30

It might be helpful to have a clearer link to the GitHub project on the site so people know that they can fork it easily. https://github.com/seanpowell/Email-Boilerplate/

Hey joshuacc - I changed the color so that it didn't blend in so much. hope that helps and thanks for the input.

Much better. Thanks!

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#60
post #28

Please get rid of your browser evangelism, no matter how clever it might be. I know very well that I shouldn't be using Internet Explorer. If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't

IE8 screenshot. http://i.imgur.com/ZFDaO.png For the record, it works great in IE9.

I posted the link into Yammer, which tries to find the most significant image for the thumbnail. I couldn't figure out where that image came from.
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