665957 - [Rapid Release] Redesign Aurora Newsletter Template

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketing :: Design, task)

Description

[Grace Jimenez :grace]

Attachment: Current Newsletter Template

- Redesign the current Aurora Newsletter Template (see attachment) to the
new template structure (similar to mainstream news)except no "in this issue section", date image and only have one or two section for articles. 

- the new design should also incorporate the Aurora re-branding (wordmark, color scheme, maybe dark background?) 

- we want to make sure that the newsletter templates have distinct designs (to differentiate from mainstream template) and aligned to the new branding (rapid release branding for aurora, beta) 

- if possible: next aurora newsletter july 5 (but also not top priority. the following aurora newsletter is in early August.)

Comment 1

[Sean Martell]

+1 on dark version. :)

Comment 2

[Tara (musingt)]

Assigning to Ty for now.  Hoping he can quickly whip something up based on past newsletter template and existing Aurora artwork he has played with. 

Grace, in terms of priority and timing... what are we looking at?  What is the latest you can have this?

Comment 3

[Grace Jimenez :grace]

hi tara. can we revisit this again this week. 
next merge is august 16. will probably need about 1 week for winston to test and set up the new design and another week to stage content. 

do you think we can have something by next week? 

thanks!

Comment 4

[John Slater]

Am wondering about the "distinct designs" direction from comment #0...why do we need distinctly different designs for this newsletter? Couldn't we just use the different background, switch the logo and basically call it a day? Frankly I don't see much extra benefit of going beyond that.

Comment 5

[Winston Bowden]

I think different color schemes and a similar structure works perfectly. Our only concern is there's a lot of list overlap between the aurora/beta lists.  We want to make sure they're clear on which build the email is referencing.

Comment 6

[Grace Jimenez :grace]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Am wondering about the "distinct designs" direction from comment #0...why do
> we need distinctly different designs for this newsletter? Couldn't we just
> use the different background, switch the logo and basically call it a day?
> Frankly I don't see much extra benefit of going beyond that.

fine with the different background and switching the logo. it doesnt have to be a complicated redesign. 

the only other requirement is to have the option to have two sections. one for desktop and one for mobile. since each release will have a desktop and mobile component. 

in addition to making sure we are branding aurora consistently. there are some overlap between the aurora and beta list and wanted the aurora newsletter to be branded aurora and have that distinction from beta. 

let me know if we can review something for next week?

Comment 7

[Ty Flanagan]

Attachment: Ffx Aurora Newsletter

Comment 8

[Grace Jimenez :grace]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Created attachment 549462 [details]
> Ffx Aurora Newsletter

hi ty! this looks pretty awesome! thank you!

winston, please review and let us know that this format would work for the aurora newsletter and didnt miss any important components. thanks!

Comment 9

[Winston Bowden]

Nice.  The only thing that might be tricky to render properly in an email client is the yellow fade at the top.  But we can give it a try as is and adjust if needed.

Comment 10

[Tara (musingt)]

Cool. give it a try and let us know?  We're looking to update the buttons eventually (better distinction between mobile and desktop)  but for now, this looks good.  Lets book it.  

Winston, I'm gonna close unless you need anything else.

Comment 11

[Winston Bowden]

Sounds good!

Comment 12

[Ty Flanagan]

Attachment: Ffx Aurora Newsletter - PSD (zip)

Comment 13

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

I'm working on implementing this newsletter and the Beta newsletter template (Bug 665960) and have a quick design note.

Putting background images behind text in email is tricky to do across most popular email clients. It's not impossible, but it involves more testing and a lot of messy work-around code.

These design work almost entire without background images except for the area at the top that reads "The first Firefox Aurora/Beta in the new rapid release..."

The gradient/stripes behind this text add a lot of complexity to the code behind the email. It would be nice to try to work around this complexity in the design process for future emails. Let me know if there are any questions - thanks.

Comment 14

[Winston Bowden]

Hey Steven - we thought this might be the case with this particular design.  Do you feel confident you can code this one to render properly?  If not - we should reopen the design bug.

Comment 15

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

I might try cheating a bit with the design during implementation, but I certainly would rather it be addressed by the original design in order to preserve a consistent design throughout.

Is it feasible to get this addressed by tomorrow? If so, let's do it, if not, I'll do my best to get as close as possible to the design.

Comment 16

[Tara (musingt)]

Ty, is this something you can tweak for us?  Perhaps just revert to a basic background vs. a textured one.  Winston/Steven would that solve the problem? If you can be specific around what would work, that would be great.

Comment 17

[Ty Flanagan]

Steven, if I remove the lines from the background, are we still able to keep the gradient?

Comment 18

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

(In reply to Ty Flanagan from comment #17)
> Steven, if I remove the lines from the background, are we still able to keep
> the gradient?

They key is to have a color area behind the text - so we can have a shorter background (gradient, lines, etc.) above and below the text, if we can have a solid color behind.

The fade on the left/right makes it a bit tricky too since the height of the text can vary.

Let me know if I can clarify further.

We could render this entire area as a single image (including the text) - with ALT text for accessibility, but a lot of people do end up seeing these emails with images turned off.

Comment 19

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

Attachment: Mockup with simplified background for email clients

Ty, to be a bit more specific, if we're stuck for time and can't come up with something better, this is the fall-back I would probably go for (mockup attached).

The lines are dropped, and on the "MAIN CONTENT BACKGROUND copy" layer the layer mask is gone (to eliminate the left/right fade edges). The inner shadow is fine.

It looks passable, I think, but I never like to start messing with a design during implementation without consulting the original designer.

I could potentially keep a bit of the lines/gradient above the top of the text, but I'm at home using Photoshop over VNC on a VPN right now - not very conducive to experimentation.

If that sounds ok with you we can re-close these bugs and I can make that tweak during implementation. If you have another visual treatment you'd prefer, I'm happy to have a look at that too. Thanks.

Comment 20

[Ty Flanagan]

Attachment: Ffx Aurora Newsletter - PSD (zip) (Revised Header)

Modified the gradient. Im pretty sure this should do the trick Steven.

Comment 21

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

(In reply to Ty Flanagan from comment #20)
> Modified the gradient. Im pretty sure this should do the trick Steven.

Perfect, thanks. Can you do the same for Bug 665960?

Comment 22

[Tara (musingt)]

Ty?

Comment 23

[Ty Flanagan]

I think we can close this bug. I fixed the gradient within the header for both Aurora and Beta newsletters a while ago.

Comment 24

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

Yeah, Ty provided a fix a while back.