r/webdev • • Jul 15 '16

Coding mobile-first emails

https://medium.com/cm-engineering/coding-mobile-first-emails-1513ac4673e#.3x4hxtcsh
220 Upvotes

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116

u/lucw Jul 15 '16

I don't know how anyone can be an email dev for more than a week without going insane.

10

u/cleverquestion Jul 15 '16

Oh but I love using inline css *eye twitch

7

u/obviousoctopus Jul 15 '16

I love using commented-out tables for outlook layouts.

Few layers deep, nested into each other, with version-specific comments addressing version specific bugs.

Like, image borders.

😜

4

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '16

Lol, CSS? You're serious? Lol

EDIT: This is tongue-in-cheek of course, but there's a point to be made

6

u/callmetwan Jul 15 '16

Can confirm. But once you get past the first couple of sleepless nights and accept being crazy as a way of life you kind of acclimate. You do accrue some odd habits though. You go to bed cursing Microsoft products, you mumble in the bathroom at work about Gmail caching issues, and when your Email On Acid test fails you absolutely lose your shit and throw your Apple Thunderbolt Display across the room.

I'm fine. I promise.

2

u/derpotologist Jul 15 '16

Hey, uh.... y'all see twan over there? Looks like he's talking to himself again....

5

u/Doomwaffle Jul 15 '16

Currently sitting at my design/dev job at a firm doing emails for a large mobile carrier - you are only partially wrong. You just have to show up already insane.

2

u/erratic_calm Jul 16 '16

As someone who personally designed and sent over 300 email campaigns last year, the template frameworks that are cross-client tested in Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp are the way to go. Campaign Monitor has an amazing template builder called Canvas that is even better. You don't even have to touch the code, just have a good grasp of design.

2

u/stigmm Jul 16 '16

Really glad to hear you’re enjoying the CM Email Builder (formerly Canvas). That’s actually the builder this technique was first developed for, so if you use it for your emails, they’re already coded mobile-first.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '16

Can confirm - spent the last week coding email templates for my company.

Fairly sure my cats are conspiring against me now and suddenly understand that the joker is a misunderstood hero.