After over two years as the lead designer on emails for L.L.Bean’s Outdoor Discovery Programs, I finally received a request to develop module based templates. While the emails had been very templated already, the goal was to develop a group of modules that would created in HTML by our email partner, Coherent Path, and used as building blocks.
After analyzing emails from the past year, I was able to identify 5 potential modules that would establish a logical hierarchy: a primary module, a secondary module, a tertiary module, a customer quote, and an instructor quote. I then assigned standard type styling across all, and established sizes for image slices.
Now, moving forward, the ODP creation process is extremely simplified. Content planners simply need to identify which modules to use, and then designers will need to slice and deliver images. Overall, this exercise streamlined the ODP email workflow and will benefit all colleagues who work on these emails.