One of the biggest features in MailChimp v6.9 is our brand new file manager. What started out as a desire to spruce up our outdated image gallery led to a full overhaul of how you add files to your email templates and campaigns. We’ve incorporated lots of fun features like drag n’ drop uploading, an easier Flickr import tool and a powerful new embedded image editor from Aviary.

I could blabber on about how great the new file manager is for quite a while, but I’m sure you’d rather just see it in action.

If you’re not into videos (or ball-shaped buildings) read on to learn about some of the other cool things in the new file manager. Read More

If you’ve been browsing the web on an iPhone or iPad, you’re probably used to seeing, well – not seeing a few things. That’s because Apple intentionally left out support for Flash on their mobile devices. Their reasoning for this omission was that many of the new standards that web browsers currently support provide much, if not all of the same functionality that Flash does without the need for a third-party plugin.

These new standards, often referred to as HTML5, are indeed the future of the web. They provide new markup and rules that specify how browsers should store data, play media files and present content. All of these changes promise to help make the old, static HTML of yesteryear more friendly for living, breathing web applications (like MailChimp) that we’ve been building for the web.

That all might sound like rainbows and unicorns, but some things are were much easier to do in Flash. Building an animated, data-driven charting library was one of those things. In fact, up until this week’s release, most of the pie, line and bar charts seen in the MailChimp application were displayed in Flash using the versatile amCharts library.

Earlier this year, amCharts released an entirely new JavaScript/HTML5 library that offered much of the same functionality without the need for Flash. The UX Team set up a little demo, duplicating a couple of our existing Flash charts with the new Javascript/HTML5 library. When Ben saw that they even animated in, his response echoed our own sentiments, “Boingy, iPhone friendly charts. Hallelujah!“

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If you’re already a MailChimp user, you’ve probably seen and customized the signup forms for your lists. If you’ve ever ventured from there into the “For Your Website” section, you may have encountered this intimidating interface:

That’s our old Signup Form Embed Code page, where you could generate HTML code to allow folks to subscribe to your email lists from your website. A lot of people use this feature, but just looking at that screenshot makes my right eye twitch a little. There are entirely too many check boxes on that page and the way it’s arranged is confusing at best.
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So a designer walks into a bar with a bunch of browsers and the bartender asks, “Where’s that blue guy?” The designer LOLz and responds, “Who? Internet Explorer? We left him ’round the corner.”

Of all the web design tasks that CSS3 makes easier, rounded corners are probably the most ubiquitous. They’re used all over MailChimp.com and inside the app as well. In the past, there were plenty of novel and somewhat spiffy methods for softening corners on the web but none of these were as straightforward and easy to implement as the standardized “border-radius” property that we’ve all come to know and love.

Last week I got into an interesting conversation with some of the DesignLab guys about the pros and cons of using CSS for rounded corners. It all started when Ron pointed out the newly redesigned signup form at tumblr.com. (Screenshot on the right.) “Those inputs are just so pretty. Look at those corners!” So look we did, hoping to find some magic formula for producing gorgeous corners and noticed that their pretty inputs relied on a background image applied to a wrapper div.

There’s really nothing wrong with using a background image. In fact, an image has the luring benefit of visual consistency across all browsers. Meanwhile border-radius is completely ignored by IE8 and below. To me though, rounded corners are merely a textural enhancement, so leaving them off in IE has never been a deal breaker.

As we talked more I learned that it wasn’t IE’s complete lack of support that bothered the designers. Instead it was the inconsistent “crunchieness” of the corners in the various browsers when combined with other CSS effects. I was surprised to learn that they even had an untested theory that odd numbered radius values looked best. To me, that meant it was time for some experiments. Read More

A common feature request we get here at MailChimp is the ability to co-brand the application interface. Typically this request comes from agencies who want to add a logo and customize the colors of a client account to match their existing brand. Having worked at several interactive agencies, I can relate. Nothing satisfies a client’s autocratic desires quite like seeing their company colors and logo plastered on something cool.

For a long time, this simply wasn’t possible. Our warm, analogous color scheme was deeply integrated into all the UI elements of the app and most logos just wouldn’t have looked right on our bright yellow header. This is something we kept in mind when working on the app redesign and we’re excited to announce that with our latest release you can now customize the design of your MailChimp account.

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