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They say, “Two heads are better than one.” Well, how about three? I was excited to participate in a developer Q&A session at the end of Email Camp 2022 with a few other email geeks. We bring you this panel discussion here as a special live edition of Notes from the Dev.
The second day of Email Camp 2022 was all about email development. It included a live coding tutorial with Jay Oram and some deep dives into dark mode as well as interactive email ideas. I also met with Avi Goldman from Parcel to talk about ways to significantly improve the efficiency of email design systems.
Of course, this developer Q&A session was kind of our grand finale. Anne Tomlin from Emails Y'all and Shani Nestingen, a lead developer and designer, joined me to answer some general questions from the community. We then also answered a series of bonus questions from the live online audience. (Our charismatic presenter/DJ was also there.)
Picking the brains of your colleagues always brings out great ideas and insights, especially when the brains belong to people like Anne and Shani. You can watch the entire session below.
And…next time you really want to join us, be sure to subscribe to email camp updates. We will inform you about dates, speakers and more – because Email Camp 2023 will only get better.
Notes from the Email Developer Q&A
Shani, Anne, and I kicked off the developer Q&A session with some topics that are generating a lot of discussion in the email geek community.
We'll give you the TL;DW (too long no watch) if you're more of a reader, but you'll hear everything we had to say when you watch the video. So scroll back up and click the play button.
Which designs are frustrating and time-consuming for developers? How can designers make our lives easier?
The big takeaway from this question… Get the developer involved as soon as possible.
Most email developers don't mind a little challenge. However, there are some things that are next to impossible to do in the inbox. So, consider including marketers, designers, and developers in campaign brainstorming sessions. Then, give your developers plenty of time to look at your email designs before sending them off for coding.
“Take advantage of us as consultants at an early stage. If you have an idea, discuss it with us. Because we can avoid many of these pitfalls…”
~ Shani Nestingen
Learn more about collaboration between designers and developers in a roundup of advice from a range of people in the email world. Plus, learn how an automated pre-email checklist helps the entire team.
How should we optimize for lean email?
Keeping your email organized and clean is important for several reasons Gmail truncates messages larger than 102 KB. Anne and Shani shared these quick tips:
- Think lean from the start: Try to limit the code you have to use at the beginning of the process so that there is less to clean up later.
- Optimize your tables: The more HTML tables you have, the more your load will increase.
- Keep your CSS clean: Leverage reusable styles and classes.
- Keep your images as small as possible: The 102KB limit in Gmail does not include images. However, large graphic files cause loading problems in the inbox.
- Be aware of your ESP: Does the platform you're using add unnecessary code and create bloat?
“If you don't need to add that extra bit of CSS, don't add it. Because that might be the only thing that pushes you over the edge, and now your footer isn’t showing up in Gmail.”
~Anne Tomlin
Learn more about Gmail clipping and get some tips for minimizing email code.
How do you handle the nuances of live text and sophisticated designs in different programming languages?
Here's one thing everyone in this developer Q&A believes: Live text is an absolute necessity. This means you should limit the copy of graphics in your email design.
For one thing, live text is essential for email accessibility. People who use screen reading software to interact with your messages can only hear the actual text, not the words you add to images and graphics (which should include alternative text). Additionally, many Outlook subscribers have images disabled by default. When important information is contained in an image, it could easily be missed.
When it comes to multiple languages, Anne talked about a campaign she recently worked on. Their approach is to use Handlers if/else statements instead of programming separate emails for each language.
One of the challenges with multiple languages is that different words are significantly longer or shorter. This can really mess up your email design and layout, so you need to be careful. Have you seen some of these German words? They're super long. Shani suggested “future-proofing” your email design for other languages by using whitespace to leave extra space in case your emails are later translated and localized.
“I'm always a believer in creating a lot of negative space around parts of live text… Giving some space and room to breathe allows for a bit more flexibility when thinking about multiple languages in the long term.”
~ Shani Nestingen
Learn more about how screen readers work and get advice on how UTF-8 encoding works for special characters in email, including non-Latin language characters.
How do you program accessible template systems?
The general answer here is that you first need to understand how to code accessible email. If possible, you should consider accessibility when building your email design system – not as an afterthought.
This includes evaluating your brand's color schemes for good contrast and including descriptive alt text for all images in your email templates. All three of us also support the idea of testing your templates and campaigns to find any accessibility issues you may be missing. Accessibility checks are part of the Sinch Email on Acid platform and you can also find them in Parcel if that is your email editor of choice.
For more information on this topic, check out our email accessibility guide and Mailjet's Inbox Accessibility report to view survey results on how marketers approach email accessibility.
The bonus questions
We had so much fun participating in this developer Q&A panel that we ended up extending the email camp beyond our planned stop time. There was a lot to discuss and our audience stuck around to ask us more questions.
Here are just some of the things we discussed:
- The benefits of designers who can code and programmers who can design
- Advice and resources for getting started with email development
- Some thoughts on the future of email development
- And more!
Do you have your own questions about email development? You're lucky. We're part of a great community of developers, designers and marketers ready to help. Join the Email Geek Slack community to connect with your colleagues.
You can also reach me, Anne and Shani on Twitter…
And don't forget to subscribe to email on Acid's YouTube channel. There we will publish new episodes of the official Notes from the Dev: Video Edition. If you missed Email Camp this year and would like to check out some of our other sessions, you can find them on the Mailjet YouTube channel.
Author: Megan Boshuyzen
Megan is a graphic designer and email developer who has worked on all aspects of email marketing. She believes that good emails for good causes make a positive difference in the world. Megan currently works as an email developer for Sinch Email. Visit their website and learn more at megbosh.com.
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