The Email Framework has already been designed, but you’ll still make design choices when building your emails. Read on for design best practices and things to avoid.
Length
Stick to the length of the placeholder text—or shorter—when populating content in content blocks.
Images
Only put images in content blocks that already have them. Adding them to other content blocks can break things.
Make sure the images in your email are directly related to your content—avoid using images just for the sake of breaking up your email. Too many images can add to scroll depth and result in your readers missing information.
Visual design
Avoid placing large passages of copy on crimson or other colored backgrounds. Large swatches of color with text reversed is often straining to read and can lose your reader’s attention quickly. Instead, keep long passages of copy on a white background. Use crimson and other colors backgrounds for short pieces of text or headlines.
Don’t add the IU trident to design assets you plan on placing in your emails. There is already a trident in the header, and additional ones end up being repetitive and aren’t needed.
Avoid too many blocks of color in a row. Stacking too many colored framework sections in a row can add visual fatigue, feel blocky, and lessen the importance of your content. Use colored backgrounds sparingly. Most email readers are used to reading copy on screens from a white background!
Content blocks
Choose the best content block based on your content. There are a variety of content blocks for a reason—the type of content you have should drive your choice of content block choices. If your email is an event invitation, use one of the event invite blocks rather than plain text. It is okay to reuse some blocks in your email if it makes sense for the content in that situation. For example, it's okay to have multiple instances of the same story block in newsletters.
Calls to action
Decide on one key action you’d like your readers to take and create a call to action for it. It should be the most visually prominent link and close to the top of your email. Secondary calls to action can be inline links. Having one clear call to action will make your email and copy scalable and clear for your reader, and too many calls to action can confuse the reader.