I'm moving my updates to a different blog, http://www.farah-faisal.blogspot.com, since it's an easier address to remember and spell. It's been a great ride updating this blog, hope you'll follow me on to the next chapter!

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Assalamu'alaikum...

Okay, so how would you feel if you got this in your inbox (and if you're the author and you see this, don't take it personally, I'm just voicing an opinion here:

PEOPLE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME BUY THE ***!!!!!!!!!!! *** NEEDS TO SELL MORE *** TO REACH OUR GOAL!!! SO PLEASE DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!! SO PLEASE COME TO *** ON *** OR CONTACT ME(***) SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME BUY THE *** TO THE BEST *** DINNER EVER!!


I'm sure all the person wants to do is sell more ***. But I feel that there is a certain etiquette one has to adhere to when writing emails, especially one that goes to so many mailing lists. Maybe I'm just a bit more nit-picky because I'm a usability person, but presentation does matter. I send out multiple emails, too, regarding events and reminder to events and reminders to reminders, and I know the pressure of trying to make something happen. But honestly, though, the above image is really jarring and does not reflect well on the email at all, and in fact reminds people too much of spam. And we all hate spam.

I guess there's the "well you don't have to read it if you don't want to" approach, but then that defeats the purpose of sending out multiple emails now, doesn't it? There are many effective ways to get a message across without resorting to large red-colored fonts. And I realize someone put a of efort into this and also planning the event and what not. But sending out normal text emails, with minimal color (like maybe just a bold heading, which can be red if you want to (that highlights the important parts (day, date, time of event) would be more appropriate. And one that doesn't involve scrolling would be terrific.

Just my 2 cents.

Here's what a few links I got off the web for writing sensible emails:

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