Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com • Hacker News Board

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#101

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:28 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #98

gumby wrote: post #54

Unmentioned is the origin of much of this value: > McMaster-Carr shoppers don’t encounter distractions; you can see proof of this on the homepage which jumps right into the action: The web site is based on the paper catalogue (book), from layout, visual interface, and organization. The paper version was excellent and useful. Instead of trying all sorts of "fun" (for the designer) web capabilities, they focused on ohw…

>Compare this to, say, Amazon where Amazon's needs are prioritized over the customers' I'm not sure that's the whole story. A critical point is that this is a B2B site. The people shopping here would tend to have a need in mind that can be solved by finding the exact right part that meets their specifications. By comparison, the typical consumer shopping experience is much more one of discovery, not need-solution mna…

Wonder how much of that is actually a preference of typical consumers, and how much it is just being forced on them.

> stimulus, sparks of ideas, reviews and testimonials, and all the other "cruft" that was removed from McMaster.com

In meatspace this is often discussed as customer-abusive design - overloading senses with shapes, colors, sounds and smells, confusing and ever-changing shop layout forcing shoppers to wander and explore, defeating the no.1. normal people advice for responsible shopping - make a list beforehand and stick to it.

I don't think HNers are that much different. We complain more, because we know more about how the web works, and realize things could be much better.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#102

Post by imiric » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:32 PM UTC

It's probably been discussed already, and I'm sure I'll get counterarguments about it, but I think having color images of their products wouldn't be a distraction.

Sure, most of their products are black or metal, and grayscale works just as well in those cases, but in others, I'd like to use the millions of colors of my display to get a better sense of what I'm buying.

I love everything else about the site, though.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#103

Post by steve76 » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#104

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:34 PM UTC

jameshart wrote: post #99

Just… astounded that the starting point for a discussion of e-commerce usability would ever be ‘let’s go gather some learnings from “a B2B site that recently made the top of HackerNews as the best e-commerce site”’ Are HN users even representative customers of McMaster Carr? Let alone of any other e-commerce site?

> Are HN users even representative customers of McMaster Carr? Let alone of any other e-commerce site?

Why wouldn't they be? Yes, most HN users have some expertise or occupation in tech, or tech-adjacent fields, but other than that, HN has a diverse userbase from all around the world and great many walks of life.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#105

Post by gumby » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:37 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #98

gumby wrote: post #54

Unmentioned is the origin of much of this value: > McMaster-Carr shoppers don’t encounter distractions; you can see proof of this on the homepage which jumps right into the action: The web site is based on the paper catalogue (book), from layout, visual interface, and organization. The paper version was excellent and useful. Instead of trying all sorts of "fun" (for the designer) web capabilities, they focused on ohw…

>Compare this to, say, Amazon where Amazon's needs are prioritized over the customers' I'm not sure that's the whole story. A critical point is that this is a B2B site. The people shopping here would tend to have a need in mind that can be solved by finding the exact right part that meets their specifications. By comparison, the typical consumer shopping experience is much more one of discovery, not need-solution mna…

Ordinary people are well known to suffer from "choice fatigue" and overstimulation. In a supermarket though it's considered a zero sum race between independent players.

On a web site run by a single entity that need not be the case.

> all the other "cruft" that was removed from McMaster.com

The point of my comment is that crap was not removed but rather was never introduced in the first place.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#106

Post by seltzered_ » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:39 PM UTC

Other discussion mentioned in article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32976978

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#107

Post by steve76 » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:40 PM UTC

analognoise wrote: post #85

I wish I could take a "Mechanical engineering with CAD and McMaster Carr" class. So speaking of - this is probably the best place on the internet to ask - does anyone know of something like that?

No post body was provided.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#108

Post by jameshart » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:40 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #104

jameshart wrote: post #99

Just… astounded that the starting point for a discussion of e-commerce usability would ever be ‘let’s go gather some learnings from “a B2B site that recently made the top of HackerNews as the best e-commerce site”’ Are HN users even representative customers of McMaster Carr? Let alone of any other e-commerce site?

> Are HN users even representative customers of McMaster Carr? Let alone of any other e-commerce site? Why wouldn't they be? Yes, most HN users have some expertise or occupation in tech, or tech-adjacent fields, but other than that, HN has a diverse userbase from all around the world and great many walks of life.

Sure, some HN users are going to be McMaster Carr users. Some HN users are probably Boeing customers as well, but I wouldn’t trust HN’s collective assessment of the procurement UX for a 787. The users who McMaster Carr is targeting peripherally intersect with the HN community. And it also happens to be a community that contains people who are more likely than the average population to enjoy browsing a parts catalog for fun.

I just don’t know how much you can conclude generally about effective e-commerce design from that sample point.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#109

Post by geodel » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:43 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #98

gumby wrote: post #54

Unmentioned is the origin of much of this value: > McMaster-Carr shoppers don’t encounter distractions; you can see proof of this on the homepage which jumps right into the action: The web site is based on the paper catalogue (book), from layout, visual interface, and organization. The paper version was excellent and useful. Instead of trying all sorts of "fun" (for the designer) web capabilities, they focused on ohw…

>Compare this to, say, Amazon where Amazon's needs are prioritized over the customers' I'm not sure that's the whole story. A critical point is that this is a B2B site. The people shopping here would tend to have a need in mind that can be solved by finding the exact right part that meets their specifications. By comparison, the typical consumer shopping experience is much more one of discovery, not need-solution mna…

> By comparison, the typical consumer shopping experience is much more one of discovery, not need-solution mnatching.

Even if I put full fucking detail with brand and model I keep getting pages and pages of random products with different "sponsored" brands, model, features and so on. Its clearly need of Amazon are taking priority over mine.

> Keep in mind the average HN user is not the typical shopper. You and I might like to "get in and get out" but so many consumer shoppers ...

Yes I love to stores and see various items that I wouldn't typically buy. I could even go to, say Costco website to see random "newly arrived seasonal items".

But on shopping websites when searching for products most people are not looking to enjoy "incredible joys of discovery" by being forced to scroll through search results for things which they haven't even searched for.

Its purely ads and "marketplace" bullshitery from Amazon and others.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#110

Post by HWR_14 » Thu, Dec 15, 2022, 5:43 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #104

jameshart wrote: post #99

Just… astounded that the starting point for a discussion of e-commerce usability would ever be ‘let’s go gather some learnings from “a B2B site that recently made the top of HackerNews as the best e-commerce site”’ Are HN users even representative customers of McMaster Carr? Let alone of any other e-commerce site?

> Are HN users even representative customers of McMaster Carr? Let alone of any other e-commerce site? Why wouldn't they be? Yes, most HN users have some expertise or occupation in tech, or tech-adjacent fields, but other than that, HN has a diverse userbase from all around the world and great many walks of life.

They wouldn't be because HN is a self-selected sample of people who tend to have tech experience, which tends to lend itself to certain ways of thinking.

If an ecommerce site depended entirely on looking through their catalog with SQL commands, I'd imagine most of the HN community would be able to navigate it (although possibly unhappy with it). I'd imagine most of the general population would not be.