Email is not a place to design
Note: below is the translation of the article Jeffrey Zeldman "E-mail is not a platform for design" . It discusses the current support from email clients for HTML markup of letters. The article is largely controversial and ambiguous.
After so many years of prosperity of the Internet, HTML letters still cause strong disgust ( still sucks ). You might think that I mean “HTML emails will not display correctly in some email clients.” However, this is only part of the truth. Companies spend hundreds of hours of simple web designers to create HTML markup that may not work in Eudora or in Gmail or stop being displayed 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 ashes if the user in the settings indicates “ do not display letters in HTML-format”.
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 with tables and cumbersome code filled with CSS style descriptions. This is like using a broken refrigerator to store food at room temperature.
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When I say HTML letters are disgusting, I do not mean that now support for visual design in letters is at the level of web standards support 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 through fast, or slow, or really slow Internet connections, using simple, non-processor-loaded applications on any computing platform, or using phones, or portable devices, or almost everything that can display text and on what can be printed.
This 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 to design. Unlike the Web, which also started as a text messaging medium, but which benefited from the introduction of images and multimedia applications, email works well in its original form, as the very basis of text-sharing systems.
Email "with design" is only a more elegant version of those messages that your uncle sends you. Your uncle thinks the text in bright red Coms Sans font in 18pt size looks great, so he sends his letters written in this way. You are 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 the work of your uncle, in two email clients that display them correctly.
Even though it 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 draws attention as a designer who thinks that everything , even a bullet that shoots his head through, will look better if it is embellished. I hate such people as much as I would hate people who hate design. Such a designer dishonors the name of his profession, and he is largely indebted to the amusing contempt that many managers and entrepreneurs see 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 inconveniences and regrets.
Thanks to everyone who read the article, it contains interesting links to the current state of affairs in the field of HTML-writing. I would appreciate any comments on such an ambiguous issue.
Web Optimizator: checking the speed of loading sites
After so many years of prosperity of the Internet, HTML letters still cause strong disgust ( still sucks ). You might think that I mean “HTML emails will not display correctly in some email clients.” However, this is only part of the truth. Companies spend hundreds of hours of simple web designers to create HTML markup that may not work in Eudora or in Gmail or stop being displayed 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 ashes if the user in the settings indicates “ do not display letters in HTML-format”.
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 with tables and cumbersome code filled with CSS style descriptions. This is like using a broken refrigerator to store food at room temperature.
')
When I say HTML letters are disgusting, I do not mean that now support for visual design in letters is at the level of web standards support 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 through fast, or slow, or really slow Internet connections, using simple, non-processor-loaded applications on any computing platform, or using phones, or portable devices, or almost everything that can display text and on what can be printed.
This 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 to design. Unlike the Web, which also started as a text messaging medium, but which benefited from the introduction of images and multimedia applications, email works well in its original form, as the very basis of text-sharing systems.
Email "with design" is only a more elegant version of those messages that your uncle sends you. Your uncle thinks the text in bright red Coms Sans font in 18pt size looks great, so he sends his letters written in this way. You are 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 the work of your uncle, in two email clients that display them correctly.
Even though it 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 draws attention as a designer who thinks that everything , even a bullet that shoots his head through, will look better if it is embellished. I hate such people as much as I would hate people who hate design. Such a designer dishonors the name of his profession, and he is largely indebted to the amusing contempt that many managers and entrepreneurs see 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 inconveniences and regrets.
The discussion is closed.
Thanks to everyone who read the article, it contains interesting links to the current state of affairs in the field of HTML-writing. I would appreciate any comments on such an ambiguous issue.
Web Optimizator: checking the speed of loading sites
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/31220/
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