Jeffrey Zeldman takes aim at the legion of HTML email that’s waiting to clog your inbox. His claim that email is not a platform for design is one that I largely agree with and with others would follow. I don’t want design in my inbox. In looking at the comments to Zeldman’s post, the few complainers are marketers who rely on [often unwanted] solicitation to garner sales. That’s what RSS feeds are for; keeping up with new and changing content/items in a website or a store.
I’ve had to design HTML emails before, and it’s quite a pain. Not only does most of the formatting have to be inline (eww) to allow it to render properly, but even then, the smallest error throws the whole thing off. This last week I’ve received two broken HTML emails (they just showed the source) from otherwise reputable companies.
If the purpose of HTML in an email is emphasis or semantic markup, then something like Markdown or Textile ought to be used. If the purpose is to turn something boring into something flashy, learn to write better.
I’m not a great writer, but I try and I think others should do the same. Simple text-based messages avoid rendering problems, bloat, and encourage better verbal communication. As Zeldman concludes:
Say it with me: HTML is for websites. CSS is for websites. GIFs and JPEGs are for websites.
ASCII means never having to say you’re sorry.
It would be nice if everyone used Unicode as well, but that’s another story for another time…