email standards project
If you’re not blind or deaf, you’ve heard about the new Email Standards Project, which has been set-up by the guys who run Campaign Monitor.
At first I discounted the value of such a project as I have often thought that HTML email sucks: it’s hard to make look consistent, so often it’s just a massive image and I think they’re often badly designed and targetted. However, they are super useful when they work. The Threadless email newsletter that the guys use as an example is actually one of the most useful of the newsletters I subscribe to - and it’s easy on the eyes, only has images for illustrations and their logo, not to mention managing to look good in both Gmail and Outlook (though this may be due to simplicity of design, and not much cross-testing).
The Email Standards Project is a stake in the ground before people discount email newsletters forever. This could be a strong case for fix the medium and the message will get better - time (and uptake) will tell.
At the very least, their benchmarking of the email clients is really useful. The guys presented the Campaign Monitor story at Web Directions South 06, and their passion for what they do is not only evident but admirable.
