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Comment by Y_Y | Hacker News Reader

https://www.mcmaster.com/ is a hardware retailer. Their website is a joy to use.

This is almost a perfect example of truly good design. Usually when we think of design, we think of trends, aesthetics, etc. But in this site the design just falls away to the background and it makes it feel very easy to use. I love this.

Couldn't agree more. Reminds me of https://www.rockauto.com/ – if you're looking for modern aesthetics you'll be disappointed. But it's the easiest store that I know of to actually find very specific parts that you're looking for. It's a joy to use.

not on mobile it isn't.

nor on computer.

Their catalog is also brilliant. Often companies seem to struggle balancing marketing desires (“HEY CHECK OUT THIS THING!!”) with serving users what they’re looking for efficiently. Mcmaster leans heavily to the latter in the catalog AND web, to the joy of their users and perhaps the frustration of their marketing team? Great stuff.

This is really nice. Interesting, they use a sprite for all the images in a collection, like it is used for a character in games.

Agree, this site looks like it is tailored closely to its users' needs.

However, I don't envy the developers that need to keep this ASP.NET web parts site up to date.

idk about legacy asp.net, but modern C# is very nice to work with. Every job I've had since my C# job, I keep thinking to myself how much easier it would be if I could rewrite the company's products in C#

Very much agree with you. C# is a great language and the .net runtime(s) are really productive. I'm speaking specifically about Web Parts which is a pretty old toolset a la legacy WebForms.

Ironically, legacy .NET toolchains like Web Forms and Web Parts can be very productive and very easy to maintain, if designed well. Most of the pain comes from the MS vendor lock-in and lack of continuing support. Microsoft has moved on from these technologies so they are no longer well supported and don't have a very defined upgrade path to more "modern" approaches.

A masterclass in Information architecture design.

This is so good and easy to navigate it made me want to buy in it!

Nice one

i love this

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