I’ve been subscribed to some of the Irish Computer Society’s newsletters for some time, though I am not a member.
Some weeks ago they sent out a newsletter without a subject line, which would have struck me as slightly odd, but when it came from ICS it struck me as incompetent. I contacted them about it, naturally, however they obviously still haven’t learnt how to send out emails!
After getting back from the office I opened my personal mail to find another “helpful” email from them without a subject line and to add insult to injury the entire content of the email is a graphic!!
Accessibility where are you?
Usability level zero
Well done!
Newsletters and announcements sent via email are possibly the only direct contact people might have with an organisation. Getting the basics right is essential
HTML Newsletters – The Spawn of Satan.
They’re the most awkward thing to get right.
At long last there is a standards movement after popping up – http://www.email-standards.org/ – but I am not sure how successful they will be. There are a LOT of barriers to the delivery of HTML newsletters.
While a graphic for an email isn’t the most accessible of options, it is pretty much guaranteed to ‘look’ correct.
I’m trying to convince work to drop HTML newsletters altogether in favor of a plain text approach which in turn links to an Ezine ‘what’s going on this month’ type webpage.
But I’m talking to marketing heads and they don’t really understand how the web works /sigh 🙁
Cormac
Including a subject line isn’t rocket science though 🙂
Michele
If it’s the same email newsletter that I got, it was rather a large image as well 🙂
Email can be a pain and I’d welcome as many standards as possible.
I was having a major headache about trying to decide whether to use a text or html mail on a mail out from php…
It seems to me that opposite or what the receiver is set up to receive looks dreadfull….
@Paul – I didn’t check the size, but it wasn’t the smallest by a long shot!