Welcome to FreshInbox’s first post.

The idea for this blog started when LinkedIn introduced their Intro app for the iPhone. The app inserts an interactive LinkedIn widget featuring the sender’s profile inside the email. Although it felt like the widget incorporated JavaScript, which is blocked by almost all email clients, I realized it was all CSS after some digging and speaking with the folks who built it (thanks InboxLove).

After a weekend full of experimenting, I was able to come up with examples of Interactive Content in email that worked with Yahoo! Mail, Outlook.com (aka Hotmail) and the native clients of iOS and Android as well as “degrade” nicely on the other major email clients. Since I’m a geek at heart, I’ve decided to spend time finding ways to leverage this new avenue and use this blog as a way to document my findings.

After decades of “static” content in email, it looks like there might be a glimmer of hope for innovation in email. I’m hoping that designers will make use of this and perhaps we can convince the titans of email (Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google) to work with the email community to bring more ways to move email forward!

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Thanks!

Justin Khoo

@FreshInbox