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

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#171

Post by MengerSponge » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:43 AM UTC

johnwalkr wrote: post #145

MengerSponge wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I've had an engineer fuss at me for using McMaster's bolt models in a rather complicated assembly. They actually model the threads and all the little details of the head, which make for a much larger model. *People who don't work in CAD may not get it, but threaded interfaces are basically modeled with cylinders that overlap where the threads are engaged. It's funny what gets represented accurately and what…

One thing they offer which is really uncommon is parametric models instead of geometric models only. It's like getting the source code instead of only a binary file. So, you can easily suppress unwanted detail.

They've doubtlessly improved things in the decade since that happened, but the important take-home for me was to just use my Parts Library for standard socket head bolts.

For weird things? Full parametric models would be great!

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#172

Post by somat » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:59 AM UTC

mmmmpancakes wrote: post #167

hammock wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

Not only this but Amazon is a marketplace for buyers AND sellers whereas it appears McMaster-Carr is the seller. Sellers on Amazon are also Amazon customers who want their own pages, copy, etc.

I don't know if it is the same as amazon. but I suspect it is.

Newegg: the store, I love, newegg: the marketplace, I dislike. newegg at least had the grace to include the filter "sold by newegg" when they made the transition to marketplace.

So then "amazon: the store" would be what? books? does amazon still sell books? or is that all amazon: the marketplace" as well? it is impossible to tell with amazon.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#173

Post by mihaic » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 10:38 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #158

mihaic wrote: post #119

I always see McMaster-Carr praised on HN, but almost never does it seem to be acknowledged as website that can only exist for engineers. Generalizing anything from it onto the general internet population seems like thinking about education starting from a great calculus course: some useful lessons can be learned, but you do need to acknowledge that the average problem is very different. And in the end we're left with…

I disagree. Yes, the specific website is for engineers and manufacturing businesses, but everything discussed here and in the article applies just as much to any e-commerce store. The core idea is: the store doesn't waste your time. > And in the end we're left with: make a fast website, clean UI, intuitive flows. That is what almost all e-commerce platforms fail at, on top of abusive, adversarial design.

The difference is that on many consumers stores you have a much higher percent of impulse shopping, that actually increases revenue with some amount of time wasting. PMs can use that as justification to add all sorts of frustrating patterns that actually lose money in the long-run.

Not addressing this as well seems to me to only give half the picture, that was what I was trying to say.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#174

Post by BenjiWiebe » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

VBprogrammer wrote: post #48

mauvehaus wrote: post #38

It's because they'll have your order at your door next day for an extremely reasonable cost of shipping. Nobody excels at pick, pack, and ship like McMaster-Carr. Where they can be a little tough is searching for things you don't know the exact name for. I needed screws that have a smooth section to run through a bushing with a fairly tight tolerance. You know: turns freely but doesn't rattle. I spent hours looking u…

I hate to mention it but this would be a killer feature of a ChatGPT like search. Imagine being able to describe something in such vague terms and get a good answer.

You shouldn't hate to mention it. I'm somewhat anti-GPT (or maybe anti-AI in general) but this would actually be a really good use case.

Re: Best ecommerce UX practices from mcmaster.com

#175

Post by albrewer » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 4:35 PM UTC

MengerSponge wrote: post #171

johnwalkr wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing they offer which is really uncommon is parametric models instead of geometric models only. It's like getting the source code instead of only a binary file. So, you can easily suppress unwanted detail.

They've doubtlessly improved things in the decade since that happened, but the important take-home for me was to just use my Parts Library for standard socket head bolts. For weird things? Full parametric models would be great!

The way I handled this in SolidWorks was to have an assembly configuration with all the detail suppressed and only use that in my model.