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To me, McMaster-Carr is the best website in existence.

The clarity of information presentation is unparalleled.

100%. I've been thinking about writing an article about McMaster-Carr's design and user experience. I've been using it for 10+ years. It's so much deeper than the web design - the moment you place an order, their return process, obtaining technical specs, datasheets and alternate unit system measurement, the entire experience of shopping on McMaster-Carr. Furthermore, their physical catalog design is also exceptional - from typography to layout, it's the pinnacle of what good design is and exemplifies what's wrong with everything today.

I just fear one day some new intern, engineer, designer or manager is going to join and ruin it. It will be a sad day.

I've kind of noticed this in general with MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations/Overahaul) organization suppliers in general, and any site that caters to procurement organizations or frequent repeat direct buyers. They tend to be very no-nonsense and streamlined, and very pleasant to work with. This might just be a cultural bias on my part, thought.

Interestingly, Far Eastern sites I've seen, even MRO and procurement-oriented sites, but especially consumer-facing sites, tend to be extremely information-dense. To my Western site-accustomed sensibilities, they feel "too busy", but after awhile I understood the aesthetic (calligraphic script languages tend to have a higher information throughput per unit area than alphabet-script languages, and this seems to bleed over into aesthetics as well).

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