The number of mobile smartphone users is growing rapidly; in fact, 46% of US mobile consumers own smartphones. With such a rise in the use of smartphones comes an increase in the number of e-mail users accessing their email via their mobile devices. What was once mainly a business practice by few is now common practice by many. This has now been happening for years, but e-mail marketing campaigns have been slow to understand and embrace designing for mobile.
The ability to see HTML e-mails on mobile devices has reinvigorated and changed e-mail marketing. Thanks to mobile devices, people are now checking their e-mail more often and more times than ever before – on the road and from their sofas. According to ComScore, 90 million Americans access email through a mobile device, with 64% doing so on a near-daily basis.
Users flip between mobiles, desktops and tablets, checking the same email account on each device, although often not the same e-mail twice, so e-mail campaigns must work well for every platform.
However, designing for a smartphone is different than designing for a desktop computer. The screen is smaller and most mobile devices are touchscreen.
Why does this matter? Text and messages must now be more concise and to the point than ever. Links and buttons must be bigger so they easier for a human finger to touch instead of a small mouse pointer.
When possible, text must be kept large and layouts simple. Big calls to action are also key.
Too Small! Just Right!
While the iPhone zooms into your email and fits the email to the width of your screen, most other devices will display the upper left-hand corner of your email, leaving users to scroll left-and-right in addition to up-and-down to view your entire message.
2 or more column layouts are dead (or should be) in this new world of mobile. One column layouts are the way to go on mobile. Even in worst-case situations where the text has been zoomed/resized, but the images or surrounding elements around it have not, one-column table layouts have always come out best in terms of usability and readability.
