At MeYou Health we’ve send out a lot of email as part of our Daily Challenge. One of the things we struggle with is design constancy from browser to browser and with images turned on and off. While our emails are far from perfect, we’re learning and always trying to improve the experience. Here are a few tips we’ve discovered:

• Try to design without images first and only add images to enhance the design
• Never rely on images to convey the main message of your email.
• Use background colors to effectively design your email
• Use old school <table> HTML to code your email. No body likes this but it’s your best shot at getting something that is recognizable.
• Use table borders to create horizontal and vertical lines.
• Be conscious of how you use your “alt” tag

Here is an example of a Hewlett-Packard email rendered in Gmail with images turned off:

Hewlett-Packard email newsletter with images turned off

Hewlett-Packard  email with images turned on:

HP email with images turned on:

That’s my 2011 goal. The math is simple, 10K steps every day and I should complete the goal. According to several websites and pedometer companies like FitBit 10,000 steps is the magic number to maintain a moderate to active amount of daily activity.

To help track my steps I use a FitBit ($99).

My Walk to Work

It’s harder than I thought it would be and January’s weather didn’t help. I’m currently a little over 30K steps off pace. I’ll need to make up some ground when the weather gets nice. I average about 40 minutes of walking during my commute to and from the train.

Total Steps to date (updated via Google Docs)