6 ms·

McMaster-Carr: A refreshingly fast, thoughtful, and well-organized website

102 points by jer0me 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jer0me 4y ago
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24803857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24803857 Some things I noticed: - Sidebar text leading adjusts with window height - Blazing-fast search - Table rows highlight on hover - Unwavering commitment to grayscale images which make scanning easier (https://www.mcmaster.com/snacks/) - No tracking scripts (per uBlock Origin)
- antipotoad 4y ago
  This is user experience design in its highest form, born out of an intimate understanding of the target customer. Very nice to see it showcased here. The lack of tracking scripts is telling. Adding them would clearly be detrimental to performance, and it’s dubious whether any insights could be so obtained. Always good to remember that observation changes the thing observed.
- zinekeller 4y ago
  > - Complete commitment to grayscale images which make scanning easier (https://www.mcmaster.com/snacks/ https://www.mcmaster.com/snacks/) Liars: https://www.mcmaster.com/product/3542N11 https://www.mcmaster.com/product/3542N11 (I'm pretty sure that's an oversight but the fact that I have to dig hard just to find this is funny)
  - heisenzombie 4y ago
    Ok, very funny. Two comments: 1. Oh dear, they are not RoHS compliant. 2. Where’s the CAD model?
    - jareklupinski 4y ago
      ah, is that the reason for this line? Cannot Be Sold To: Canada
  - mgdlbp 4y ago
    Most clothing is in colour (just not the categories) https://www.mcmaster.com/clothing/ https://www.mcmaster.com/clothing/ Also (inconsistently) other objects where it might matter https://www.mcmaster.com/high-visibility/ https://www.mcmaster.com/high-visibility/
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  I will say, one thing I do wish it had was the ability to configure the test size. Everything is so tiny and I feel like I have to squint. I wonder how they arrived at default 10.5pt font.
  - jjav 4y ago
    command or control + in your browser takes care of that.
- pvg 4y ago
  More recently https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34000502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34000502 a month ago, 167 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32976978 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32976978 4 months ago, 490 comments
dieselgate 4y ago
Hell yeah, preach. Mcmaster is great for both personal and professional usage. So much nostalgia around their huge physical catalog book, but hey that's what the website is replacing (would assume you can still get the catalog in print though) edit: and the website has cad files for basically every part
- westhom 4y ago
  Still in print as far as I know. These days the physical catalog is very difficult to get from McMaster. They probably make them in very low quantities and hand select who gets them, maybe based on lifetime spend / org size, or so I’ve heard.
roflyear 4y ago
Okay I love the site but we've gotten a lot of these posts. Karma farming?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
friedman23 4y ago
[flagged]
- jer0me 4y ago
  I thought so as well, but apparently it's only been posted once before: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=mcmaster.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=mcmaster.com Immediate Edit: I should have used the Algolia search—there are a few secondary sources referencing it
  - silisili 4y ago
    It is brought up every time fast websites/good design is brought up it seems. Not complaining, it's a nice site everyone should see.
ddoice 4y ago
Hate to be that guy but "You need to enable JavaScript to run this app."
- LarryMullins 4y ago
  Yeah, it's not so nice once you browse past the landing page. You also have to enable cookies, or you'll get stuck looking at a pinwheel.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
danpalmer 4y ago
Great site if you know exactly what you need, but a lot of this information hierarchy won't work for those just browsing or looking for inspiration. That's the right choice for this site and what I expect it's users want, but not something that every ecommerce site should be aspiring to. Having built an ecommerce site where the primary use-case was not a specialist who knows exactly what they want, I'd suggest that this is probably the easier type. In my experience, building a rigid hierarchy is the easy part, and building a site around that is straightforward. Add in a user preference of ease of use over looking good, and this isn't a particularly hard problem to solve. The issue gets harder when categories are subjective, when there are many similar products, when relationships between products are subjective, when browsing, and providing relevant and interesting onward journeys at each step are important for a good user experience, and when design and branding are important for brand trust. It's easy to be dismissive of the effect of branding, or to say that websites shouldn't be optimising for engagement, but in markets such as fashion, these are critically important to the user experience and perception, and ultimately user satisfaction from the products, and are not just about the bottom line of the business. tldr: don't apply this all blindly, it's good but relevance depends on the store.
- greggyb 4y ago
  Having used McMaster Carr several times with not a clue as to the correct search terms, I must disagree with your assertion that the site only caters to those who know what they are looking for. Vague search terms will give you results more reasonable than I would expect. Every product category and refinable search field has a useful description to help you figure out what you want to search for and how to refine your search. Additionally, broad searches show multiple categories so that you can quickly figure out what categories are even available to start from. Granted, if you do not know what to search for at first, it will take several iterations and some reading to get there, but the critical part is that you can. When I have used McMaster Carr, my experience starting from ignorance has been better than all other e-commerce sites I have used, even when I know what I am looking for on those other sites. The only exception is when I have an exact brand and model I want.
  - 4y ago
dirtyid 4y ago
Do they have have an IKEA like storefront anywhere? I'd pay for a solid day pass to fiddle with all the different cable ties.
axiolite 4y ago
It's clean and fast, and completely useless as a store. Can't even estimate shipping & tax without creating an account.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
lopkeny12ko 4y ago
I agree with the sentiment expressed in the title, though am pretty confused. This just seems to be the McMaster-Carr homepage? I was expecting an article or blog post analysis of the UX and why it's "thoughtful and well-organized."
- throwaway892238 4y ago
  That's just it. No blog necessary. Just use the site. It's amazing.
bityard 4y ago
Just wait until you see rockauto.com
- latchkey 4y ago
  > rockauto.com Woah, that has a part for my campervan that I'd never seen sold before or even installed on a similar vehicle! It is a hook step for getting into the front doors. Not even expensive. Nice!
- imron 4y ago
  From a clean cache, rockauto.com takes a good 5 seconds to fully load on my machine. mcmaster.com is under a second.
ComputerGuru 4y ago
Ok, I guess I will be the party pooper this HN post. McMaster broke middle-click opening of drill-down links in tabs in their most recent complete UX rewrite some years ago. The old site was even better.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
soheil 4y ago
Buttttt, it doesn't render as quickly as a React app would.. Think about the DOM! It also probably mutates state, how dare they! This is proof that if hipster JS programmers disappeared tomorrow the web would flourish once again.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway892238 4y ago
  It's too late. Browser makers and hipster JS programmers signed a pact with Satan to keep making the web worse in exchange for job security through unnecessary complexity.
elchief 4y ago
Cool, stop. Third fucking time this year. We get it
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  The beatings with McMaster-Carr will continue until the UI/UX people get the message and website usability improves.
throwaway892238 4y ago
Somebody should send their whole website product team Christmas gifts for making a website that doesn't suck. It's really rare these days. Thanks web peeps. <3
joshcarr 4y ago
A love letter to the McMaster-Carr catalog: https://masterlist.co/ https://masterlist.co/
dave333 4y ago
Practical application of Tufte's Small Multiples pattern https://infovis-wiki.net/wiki/Small_Multiples https://infovis-wiki.net/wiki/Small_Multiples

102 points by jer0me 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24803857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24803857 Some things I noticed: - Sidebar text leading adjusts with window height - Blazing-fast search - Table rows highlight on hover - Unwavering commitment to grayscale images which make scanning easier (https://www.mcmaster.com/snacks/) - No tracking scripts (per uBlock Origin)

antipotoad 4y ago
This is user experience design in its highest form, born out of an intimate understanding of the target customer. Very nice to see it showcased here. The lack of tracking scripts is telling. Adding them would clearly be detrimental to performance, and it’s dubious whether any insights could be so obtained. Always good to remember that observation changes the thing observed.
zinekeller 4y ago
> - Complete commitment to grayscale images which make scanning easier (https://www.mcmaster.com/snacks/ https://www.mcmaster.com/snacks/) Liars: https://www.mcmaster.com/product/3542N11 https://www.mcmaster.com/product/3542N11 (I'm pretty sure that's an oversight but the fact that I have to dig hard just to find this is funny)
- heisenzombie 4y ago
  Ok, very funny. Two comments: 1. Oh dear, they are not RoHS compliant. 2. Where’s the CAD model?
  - jareklupinski 4y ago
    ah, is that the reason for this line? Cannot Be Sold To: Canada
- mgdlbp 4y ago
  Most clothing is in colour (just not the categories) https://www.mcmaster.com/clothing/ https://www.mcmaster.com/clothing/ Also (inconsistently) other objects where it might matter https://www.mcmaster.com/high-visibility/ https://www.mcmaster.com/high-visibility/
bobthepanda 4y ago
I will say, one thing I do wish it had was the ability to configure the test size. Everything is so tiny and I feel like I have to squint. I wonder how they arrived at default 10.5pt font.
- jjav 4y ago
  command or control + in your browser takes care of that.
pvg 4y ago
More recently https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34000502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34000502 a month ago, 167 comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32976978 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32976978 4 months ago, 490 comments

dieselgate 4y ago

Hell yeah, preach. Mcmaster is great for both personal and professional usage. So much nostalgia around their huge physical catalog book, but hey that's what the website is replacing (would assume you can still get the catalog in print though) edit: and the website has cad files for basically every part

westhom 4y ago
Still in print as far as I know. These days the physical catalog is very difficult to get from McMaster. They probably make them in very low quantities and hand select who gets them, maybe based on lifetime spend / org size, or so I’ve heard.

roflyear 4y ago

Okay I love the site but we've gotten a lot of these posts. Karma farming?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

friedman23 4y ago

[flagged]

jer0me 4y ago
I thought so as well, but apparently it's only been posted once before: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=mcmaster.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=mcmaster.com Immediate Edit: I should have used the Algolia search—there are a few secondary sources referencing it
- silisili 4y ago
  It is brought up every time fast websites/good design is brought up it seems. Not complaining, it's a nice site everyone should see.

ddoice 4y ago

Hate to be that guy but "You need to enable JavaScript to run this app."

LarryMullins 4y ago
Yeah, it's not so nice once you browse past the landing page. You also have to enable cookies, or you'll get stuck looking at a pinwheel.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

danpalmer 4y ago

Great site if you know exactly what you need, but a lot of this information hierarchy won't work for those just browsing or looking for inspiration. That's the right choice for this site and what I expect it's users want, but not something that every ecommerce site should be aspiring to. Having built an ecommerce site where the primary use-case was not a specialist who knows exactly what they want, I'd suggest that this is probably the easier type. In my experience, building a rigid hierarchy is the easy part, and building a site around that is straightforward. Add in a user preference of ease of use over looking good, and this isn't a particularly hard problem to solve. The issue gets harder when categories are subjective, when there are many similar products, when relationships between products are subjective, when browsing, and providing relevant and interesting onward journeys at each step are important for a good user experience, and when design and branding are important for brand trust. It's easy to be dismissive of the effect of branding, or to say that websites shouldn't be optimising for engagement, but in markets such as fashion, these are critically important to the user experience and perception, and ultimately user satisfaction from the products, and are not just about the bottom line of the business. tldr: don't apply this all blindly, it's good but relevance depends on the store.

greggyb 4y ago
Having used McMaster Carr several times with not a clue as to the correct search terms, I must disagree with your assertion that the site only caters to those who know what they are looking for. Vague search terms will give you results more reasonable than I would expect. Every product category and refinable search field has a useful description to help you figure out what you want to search for and how to refine your search. Additionally, broad searches show multiple categories so that you can quickly figure out what categories are even available to start from. Granted, if you do not know what to search for at first, it will take several iterations and some reading to get there, but the critical part is that you can. When I have used McMaster Carr, my experience starting from ignorance has been better than all other e-commerce sites I have used, even when I know what I am looking for on those other sites. The only exception is when I have an exact brand and model I want.
- 4y ago

dirtyid 4y ago

Do they have have an IKEA like storefront anywhere? I'd pay for a solid day pass to fiddle with all the different cable ties.

axiolite 4y ago

It's clean and fast, and completely useless as a store. Can't even estimate shipping & tax without creating an account.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

lopkeny12ko 4y ago

I agree with the sentiment expressed in the title, though am pretty confused. This just seems to be the McMaster-Carr homepage? I was expecting an article or blog post analysis of the UX and why it's "thoughtful and well-organized."

throwaway892238 4y ago
That's just it. No blog necessary. Just use the site. It's amazing.

bityard 4y ago

Just wait until you see rockauto.com

latchkey 4y ago
> rockauto.com Woah, that has a part for my campervan that I'd never seen sold before or even installed on a similar vehicle! It is a hook step for getting into the front doors. Not even expensive. Nice!
imron 4y ago
From a clean cache, rockauto.com takes a good 5 seconds to fully load on my machine. mcmaster.com is under a second.

ComputerGuru 4y ago

Ok, I guess I will be the party pooper this HN post. McMaster broke middle-click opening of drill-down links in tabs in their most recent complete UX rewrite some years ago. The old site was even better.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

soheil 4y ago

Buttttt, it doesn't render as quickly as a React app would.. Think about the DOM! It also probably mutates state, how dare they! This is proof that if hipster JS programmers disappeared tomorrow the web would flourish once again.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
throwaway892238 4y ago
It's too late. Browser makers and hipster JS programmers signed a pact with Satan to keep making the web worse in exchange for job security through unnecessary complexity.

elchief 4y ago

Cool, stop. Third fucking time this year. We get it

TeMPOraL 4y ago
The beatings with McMaster-Carr will continue until the UI/UX people get the message and website usability improves.

throwaway892238 4y ago

Somebody should send their whole website product team Christmas gifts for making a website that doesn't suck. It's really rare these days. Thanks web peeps. <3

joshcarr 4y ago

A love letter to the McMaster-Carr catalog: https://masterlist.co/ https://masterlist.co/

dave333 4y ago

Practical application of Tufte's Small Multiples pattern https://infovis-wiki.net/wiki/Small_Multiples https://infovis-wiki.net/wiki/Small_Multiples