Mobile Email Design, Strategies, Workflow and Best Practices
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In this presentation, Justine Jordan and Alex Williams tackle some of the toughest questions and offer real-life advice for getting multiscreen email right. Topics include: *The implications of each major screen size and device *Determining what devices your subscriber base is using and how and where they are converting *The different types of design approaches, such as responsive and scalable, and which is the best fit based on your resources and expertise *Creating a consistent user experience across email and Web/landing pages *Examples and key best practices *Communicating with your designer and programmer *Testing, learning, optimization and measurement/analysis *Future trends and predictions
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Mobile Email Design, Strategies, Workflow and Best Practices
- 1. Email Strategy and Design for a MultiscreenWorld
- 2. Alex Williams Creative Director Trendline Interactive @alexcwilliams Justine Jordan Research & Education Litmus @meladorri
- 3. We’re GonnaTalk. A Lot. The lay of the land Multiscreen design approaches Implications… Workflow and process Key best practices
- 4. Got screens?
- 6. Today, at #spop13 OF OPENS ARE ON A MOBILE DEVICE 5-50% on individual campaigns 60%+ for niche audiences
- 7. Email Opens: April 2013 Mobile: Smartphones (iPhone,Android) and tablets Desktop: Installed email programs (Outlook, Apple Mail) Webmail: Email accessed through a web browser (Gmail, Hotmail,Yahoo!) Desktop 34% Webmail 24% Mobile 42% Source: Litmus Email Analytics
- 8. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Opens in Each Environment Webmail Desktop Mobile The last 28 months 42% 33% 10%
- 9. The Most Important Audience… YOURS.
- 10. How mobile are your customers? Brand/Industry A: 55% Brand/Industry B: 18% Plan on data, not your gut
- 13. Small Medium Large Screensize-apalooza iPhone 2.3” wide Galaxy Note II 3.2” wide Nexus 7 7.3” wide BB Bold 2.6” wide iPad Mini 5.3” wide Excite 13 8.5” wide
- 15. http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/02/how-do-users-really-hold-mobile-devices.php 15% two handed 49% one handed 36% cradled 67% used right thumb on the screen 33% used left thumb on the screen
- 16. Approaches
- 17. As with most things with email, there’s not a one-size- fits-all approach (sorry to disappoint you)
- 18. Mobile First Considers the mobile user as a priority |-------------------460px -------------------| |---------------------600px ---------------------|
- 19. Mobile First / Friendly • One layout for all screen sizes • Single column design – 320-500px • Large text & buttons • Generous white space • Clear calls to action • Short, concise body copy Agnostic / Aware / Scalable
- 21. Pros • Prioritizes important data, content, actions • Easier execution • No reliance on media query support • Good rendering in apps and native clients Cons • Desktop can suffer • Less real estate • Can get long • Fixed width can be less than ideal for Android Mobile First / Friendly BEST FOR: Ready for change, testing the waters, or resource strapped
- 22. Fluid Email width changes to fit within the window |--------------------------------------------------------1166px---------------------------------------------------| |-----------------------------525px --------------------------|
- 23. Fluid layout • Percentage-based widths • Adapts to fill the screen it’s viewed on; text wraps automatically
- 25. Fluid layout BEST FOR: Simple layouts, automated emails, mostly text/few images Pros • Simple execution • No learning curve or reliance on media queries Cons • Fewer design choices • Very narrow or very wide emails can get awkward and hard to read
- 26. Responsive Design Uses media queries to detect screen size and alter content accordingly |-----------320px ------------||--------------------------------------------700px------------------------------------------ |
- 27. Responsive Design • More than a “line of code” • Set of conditional statement that enables specific styles – If the screen size is x, then display y – If the screen size is x, then increase headline size to y – If screen size is x, then show image at 100% • Detects screen size, not device type
- 29. Pros • Restyle, resize or reorder elements • Ability to hide/show desktop or mobile specific images/content • Customized calls to action • Seamless experience across a range of screen sizes Cons • Coding learning curve • Forces tough choices • Increased production and QA time Responsive Design BEST FOR: Growing mobile audiences, travel alerts, tech companies
- 30. Email is an *application*
- 31. Email is an *application* Device ≠ email client
- 32. IMPLICATIONS!!
- 33. iPhone native yes iPad native yes Android 2.1 native no Android 2.2 native yes Android 2.3 native yes Android 4.x native yes Gmail mobile apps no Mailbox iOS app yes @media support http://stylecampaign.com/blog/2012/10/responsive-email-support/ Yahoo! mobile apps no Windows Mobile 7 no Windows Mobile 7.5 yes Windows Mobile 8 no BlackBerry OS 6 yes BlackBerry OS 7 yes BlackBerry Z10 yes Kindle Fire native yes
- 35. iPhone: 23% of opens • Automatically scales messages to fit the screen • Excellent support for CSS3 and media queries • Images on by default • Resizes fonts under 13px
- 36. Android: 8% of opens • Blocks images by default; supportsALT text • Two apps with opposing support for media queries • Primary content focus on left- hand side • Various screen sizes and no automatic scaling Image source: stylecampaign.com
- 37. BlackBerry Z10 < 1% • Media query support • Blocks images; supports styledALT text • Does not scale/auto-zoom • No separate app; email joins social, SMS and voice in the “hub”
- 38. Windows Phone < 1% • Mixed media query support • Does weird things to fonts • Blocks images; no ALT text • No one has them
- 39. What about tablets? • Desktop version usually works just fine • Plan for tap targets and plenty of white space • Mobile first/friendly rules apply
- 40. Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Choices • First, we must choose our design approach • Next, every module and piece of content has to have a plan • Lastly, we need a plan B in case we run into trouble in execution.
- 41. Mobile Success =Tough Choices • Analyze each section of the template • Look at historical performance, remove feelings from the process • Trace required-content back to the source to understand rationale.
- 43. First Steps of Design Planning • Identify top email clients on Desktop,Tablet and Smartphone. Focus on top 3-5 in each. • Prioritize - in order - 3 desired actions from each email. • Audit assets. Are we working with raw assets or pre-designed assets from different channel?
- 44. A Responsive Design Process 1. Grid 2. Wireframe 3. ResponsiveWireframe HTML Prototype 4. Visual Design (varies depending on stakeholders) 5. Code Final HTML
- 45. Key best practices But first…
- 46. In Memorium
- 47. The Fold
- 48. Small Grey Fonts
- 51. Link Clusters
- 52. Busy Images
- 57. Bigger buttons & fonts • Increase all font sizes 25%, especially headlines – Body copy: 16px+ – Headlines: 22px+ – Buttons: 44px by 44px – White space: 15px • If you don’t make them bigger, Apple will!
- 60. Consider the experience • Landing pages are part of that experience • Driving people to stuff that doesn’t work on mobile is stupid ???? Page/Site Tap Preview/Open Preheader Subject Line From Name
- 61. Fsdlkjfsldjf Flash Interstitials / pop-ups Painfully long forms
- 62. Prioritize and focus • Identify the top 3-5 activities and use those – Purchase? – Download? – Registration? – Social?
- 63. Device targeting can display app/OS specific content
- 64. Dial up the contrast Bright screens kill batteries
- 65. Say no to link clusters and yes to white space
- 66. Retina Optimizing Images 400x300 - 12kb - 70% Compression …width=”200" height=”150” class=”Loren”… @media only screen and (max-width: 599px) img[class=”Loren"] { width: 100%; height: auto !important; }
Editor's Notes
- Over 9 quarters, we’ve seen some crazy s^&% happen…
- now it’s REALLY easy. No excuses!!!
- now it’s REALLY easy. No excuses!!!
- One-handed use seems to be highly correlated with users’ simultaneously performing other tasks. Many of those using one hand to hold their phone were carrying out other tasks such as carrying bags, steadying themselves when in transit, climbing stairs, opening doors, holding babies, and so on.Left handedness in the general population: 10%
- “Mobile forces you to focus. Mobile devices require … teams to focus on only the most important data and actions. … There simply isn’t room in a 320 by 480 pixel screen for extraneous, unnecessary elements. You have to prioritize. So when a team designs mobile first, the end result is an experience focused on the key tasks users want to accomplish without the extraneous detours and general interface debris that litter today’s desktop-accessed websites. That’s good user experience and good for business.”
- Fairly easy to implementFew rendering issuesVery small and very large screens can be hard to read
- Advantages: You create a single message, which provides a seamless experience for viewers no matter which screen they use. Your responsive email will be optimized for many mobile devices, especially the iPhone. Responsive design also allows you to show or hide blocks of copy in different versions of the email. Many designers have latched onto this “show-hide” capability because it allows them to customize copy, images or calls to action for different devices. You could show three offers in a desktop version, for example, and then direct the mobile version to hide all but the primary offer. Disadvantages: Responsive design requires specialized coding expertise and isn’t compatible with all devices/ OS, such as BlackBerry, older versions of Outlook and the Gmail application on an Android mobile. Also, your mobile version might have to lose some valuable content, such as a secondary offer or editorial content. This could reduce click and conversion opportunities.
- Advantages: You create a single message, which provides a seamless experience for viewers no matter which screen they use. Your responsive email will be optimized for many mobile devices, especially the iPhone. Responsive design also allows you to show or hide blocks of copy in different versions of the email. Many designers have latched onto this “show-hide” capability because it allows them to customize copy, images or calls to action for different devices. You could show three offers in a desktop version, for example, and then direct the mobile version to hide all but the primary offer. Disadvantages: Responsive design requires specialized coding expertise and isn’t compatible with all devices/ OS, such as BlackBerry, older versions of Outlook and the Gmail application on an Android mobile. Also, your mobile version might have to lose some valuable content, such as a secondary offer or editorial content. This could reduce click and conversion opportunities.
- After the from/subject/preheader, you get the open.The preview pane still counts, but has a different form factor