Recently when designing an email that was intended to land in the user’s inbox ‘out of the blue’, I found myself reminded of an experience I had with a take-away menu not too long ago. Only about 10% of the mail I receive at my flat in London is of any use, the rest is taxi-cab call cards, take away menus and the odd flyer — all of which is immediately binned before it even reaches the second floor of my apartment building. These unsolicited piles of paper are comparable, in my opinion, to all those emails I receive that are instantly trashed. But I did, as I mentioned, make an exception for one takeaway menu that arrived to the flat not too long ago.

The envelope was standard, white and hand delivered (no postage). On the front was my hand-written address with a ‘To the Occupier’ — slightly impersonal, but intriguing. Unlike the remainder of my post box, this letter made it all the way to my flat. From the comfort of my couch, and with vested interest I opened the envelope to find the menu to our local Indian takeaway. Somewhat disappointed, I was nonetheless impressed at the the effort involved in engaging my attention. I still have that menu.

This experience made me realize two things that are important when considering communicating with your audience by mail, be it electronic or ’snail’.

Firstly, that no matter how interesting your content, or beautiful your design – the biggest task your mail has to achieve is simply to be opened, and not disregarded as junk before it’s even had a chance. On the face of it, what makes your communication different from the hoards of others just like it? Perhaps its the apt timing, the relevant subject line or the individual sender, i.e. “From: Pete” rather than “From: Buzzgraphics” — or, as in my example, the personal touch.

Secondly, knowing your place is important – this applies mainly to emails. Your user has taken the time to open your mail… the privilege is yours, not theirs. This is when design and copy can play their part — but instead of opening with a big header image, or “Get 10% off” in flashing red text, a better solution might be to open with an honest, frank and personable introduction. When reading an unsolicited item of mail, I’m far more likely to respond if I’m greeted by “Hello, my name is…”. Once you’re done with the intro’s, if you must, mention your fantastic offer/website/proposition.

It’s interesting how much is assumed of the user when sending email communications – but remembering that you’re talking to real individuals (individuals that have better things to be doing than wasting time on things they didn’t ask for) is the most important lesson of all. So next time you brief a designer, or design an email yourself – it might be worth considering the basics before jumping straight into your highly-interesting content or critiquing the nuances of your header detailing. After all, email marketing does still have it’s place, it just requires a bit of love.

Eye Candy

Some nicely designed sites that I’ve come across over the past week

Dyson Dryers
L’agence L’équipe
The 2009 Feltron Report
Brand New Day
Poolga iPhone Wallpapers
Twitter Chirp
Style Boost
Journeys with No Return

Dev/tech Stuff

Various development-related things that I found interesting

Dummy Image Generator
No-IE6 Page
Moo Cards
(Buggy) Flash ‘Converter’ for iPhone
Sexy CSS Buttons

Misc.

Random funny/interesting things I’ve stumbled across

The Life of a Designer
Disposable memory project
Morgan Freeman Impersonator
Design Events Webapp

The conversation that followed:

Me:
Yep, here’s a link to my own passport – http://shrt.st/al2
(Note: I did a Google image search for “UK Passport”, then did an ‘Exact size’ filter)

Jennifer:
what passport is this?

Me:
Had you done a little research on me first, you would see that I am a graphic designer. I would be pretty bad at my job if I didn’t notice STRAIGHT AWAY that your passport is a direct clone of http://shrt.st/al2.
Apart from the fact that your passport looks NOTHING like a genuine UK passport, there are some things that I’d like to point out:

You can’t have black and white photos on your passport – they’re quite specific about that here
The number at the bottom actually represents your date of birth backwards, which in this case… doesn’t actually match
A real passport has all kinds of holograms, watermarks and extra jazz on it… all of which is mysteriously missing in this case
And… despite the rubbish quality of the ’scan’ – your photo has remarkable clarity

Jennifer:
Well that was then, everything has changed now and that is my passport.

Me:
Oh, OK brilliant – my mistake entirely.
I will transfer you the money now, plus a little extra so you can buy yourself an updated copy of Photoshop.

Jennifer:
You should stop kidding. Are you the first person to find a scam out? After all i am not the first to practice this… find me a job and i will stop doing this!

Me:
Bob (I’m assuming you’re not called Jenny, so Bob seems like a good name for you),
You’re absolutely right – you deserve nothing but compassion. After all, you only tried to steal my passport AND my money… but I’m sure you’re a great person and you should be very proud of yourself.
With regards to finding you a job… as you have a basic understanding of computers and a loose grip on the English language — perhaps you could be a rocket scientist or a highly paid politician. You certainly deserve the break! If any of these work out for you, then you could transfer some money to me as thanks… $1000 or so would be great.

All the very best, and my warmest regards.

The application is a free and simple white-label tool for design professionals to upload and share concept work either internally, or with clients. Specifically, the tool allows users to upload website concepts (foregrounds, and repeating backgrounds) and view as if they were coded – although the tool also works extremely well for individual image sharing.

Amongst various other features – users are able to group, annotate, drag and drop their work – then share individual or grouped concepts with others.

The design of good houses requires an understanding of both the construction materials and the behavior of real humans. – Peter Morville