General > General Technical Chat
Digi-Key has changed and it is not very good
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rsjsouza:

--- Quote from: gussy on January 18, 2021, 06:22:55 am ---This is the reason websites continually change. It's not just "change for the sake of change".
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Although not 100% of the cases, in my experience that happens enough times to be very significant. I have been in many UI/website/platform decision making committees and, in my experience, the bad decisions are made based on several factors: either "pie-in-the-sky" goals (we need to become an Amazon or a Facebook), using weak arguments (the ever ethereal "market trend" or modern "look and feel"), feedback shutdown due to bad planning/timing (we like your suggestion but can't do anything as the deadline is too close) or based on very small sample size "research" and/or "studies" (only a very small fraction of customers take their time to answer usability and feedback questionnaires, let alone the ones that subject themselves to early user adoption test). In my experience, they are incredibly correlated with internal management change - the origin of my original comment.

The great number of good decisions exist, but they are usually based on solid research and feedback - yes, this is one of the few cases I dare to say that "design by committee" tends to have more successful stories than "single ruler party". 


--- Quote from: gussy on January 18, 2021, 06:22:55 am ---A good example of this is the recent picklist change, where the picklists went from normal html select lists, to the (imo) frustrating picklists that no longer perform like a normal html select list. Using CTRL and SHIFT to select multiple is items is broken now, and replaced by selecting individual items by clicking on them. This change is frustrating, but I understand why they did it. I've stood behind at least 3 junior EE's who while using digikey, would select one item from a picklist, view the results, then go back, select another, view those results. When I pointed out that they could select multiple items, they were surprised that this (basic, default html select) feature existed. I observed these same people trying to select multiple items by just clicking on them (like you can do now). This is why websites like DigiKey make these changes, because while you may know how to use the tool very efficiently, there's bound to be lots of people less experienced learning or struggling.
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I don't quite follow your example. Despite the change to something (in your opinion) worse, you showed the junior EEs how to do a multiple selection and this brought one more tool to their belt. The way I read it, the operative word on your example is "learning".

I personally don't have a beef with "sticky-click" picklists, as they are one of the most usable ways if you are on a mobile platform without a keyboard. Besides, you can still use Shift to select ranges and, even better, you can select non-contiguous ranges using the same key. However, intuitiveness is not the holy grail and certain non-intuitive things need to be inserted to make people pause before taking a decision - the "OK" or "Apply" buttons in configuration screens, for example, which are disappearing from newer UIs.


--- Quote from: gussy on January 18, 2021, 06:22:55 am ---It's a tricky balance to keep. On the one hand you don't want to alienate your existing customers, but on the other hand you want to make it as easy as possible for new users to make their first order. Inevitably the balance usually tips more towards the new users, as experienced users are probably less likely to leave over UI changes. I know I won't leave over the new picklists. While I really don't like the new picklists, I know that the value DigiKey offers is in more than just their picklists.

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I agree with the balance part of it. However, I also agree with the sentiment that UIs can make people leave your platform - see Arrow.com, for example. For a B2B e-commerce, however, the issue must be much worse than a few clicks here and there (automation is usually much more valued).
floobydust:
This is about mass incompetence with their new website. The basics of project management- software requirements, signoff, coding, testing - all missing.
I'd roll some heads because it's obvious nobody knows what an LED is or even owns a soldering iron over there lol.

Example: looking for a voltage range in a component group.
Can we enter a range in "Search Filter" ? NO. "2-3" gives nothing.
Can't do it at all with MCU's, if looking for a 5V or 1.8V part. This has been complained about by many and nothing done.

For LED's. let's try type in a friendly "4" for Vf.
Oh look, it's our old friend of inept website coding - Radix sort, great with punched cards in 1923, as if numeric values are text.
Results (in pic) include any entry containing a "4", up to 48V or 64V. Type in "2.9" and 12.9 is a hit  :palm:
TOTALLY STUPID.

Most corporations would now look at (and fix) all parameter filters, but no we get to die a slow death complaining here byte by byte. Or go to Mouser lol.
james_s:

--- Quote from: SVFeingold on January 18, 2021, 10:21:26 am ---Seriously what kind of attitude is this? Digikey doesn't exist to rant at the clouds about youngsters these days. They're here to attract new customers and keep existing ones and grow their business. As is every business. Only they know whether their changes accomplish this goal or not, because they're the only ones with relevant data. I hope they fire any web designer that can't set up simple A/B tests without going off on a tangential rant about how everyone is stupid nowadays.

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Your attitude is to change something making it more difficult for one group in an attempt to make it easier for another group, how is that any better? This is such a trivial thing that simply informing someone how to do it would solve the "problem". Perhaps you'll "get it" once you're old enough to have gotten bored of change for the sake of change and tired of re-leaning things you already spent time learning and having your workflow and muscle memory disrupted by pointless changes.. Get off your high horse, you're not any more virtuous than the rest of us and you're not going to be fundamentally different when you grow up than the people you're complaining about..
james_s:

--- Quote from: floobydust on January 18, 2021, 08:09:04 pm ---For LED's. let's try type in a friendly "4" for Vf.
Oh look, it's our old friend of inept website coding - Radix sort, great with punched cards in 1923, as if numeric values are text.
Results (in pic) include any entry containing a "4", up to 48V or 64V. Type in "2.9" and 12.9 is a hit  :palm:
TOTALLY STUPID.

Most corporations would now look at (and fix) all parameter filters, but no we get to die a slow death complaining here byte by byte. Or go to Mouser lol.

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I did just that in my most recent order, I got so frustrated trying to find what I was looking for that I closed the browser in disgust and ordered it from Mouser instead. Not that Mouser's website is any kind of gold standard but at least the sorting of stuff like voltages isn't completely broken and useless.  |O

This is the stuff that really makes a difference. I can adjust to a change in the way the picklists work if the values are at least sorted properly so I can select a range, but when it's just completely broken, I'm sorry but this train wreck is a display of gross incompetence and is simply inexcusable.
SVFeingold:

--- Quote from: james_s on January 18, 2021, 09:10:15 pm ---This is such a trivial thing that simply informing someone how to do it would solve the "problem".

--- End quote ---

I agree, but they could probably say the same about the new system.   


--- Quote ---Perhaps you'll "get it" once you're old enough to have gotten bored of change for the sake of change and tired of re-leaning things you already spent time learning and having your workflow and muscle memory disrupted by pointless changes.. Get off your high horse, you're not any more virtuous than the rest of us and you're not going to be fundamentally different when you grow up than the people you're complaining about..

--- End quote ---

"It's inevitable, you'll be bitter when you're older too." Sorry, I don't subscribe. And anyway I agree with you about change for the sake of change. I've got plenty of examples I could go on about. It's not that I don't "get it," it's that there's no reason to condition myself to view every issue in the light of "how does this make me smart and everyone else a moron." There's your high horse right next to mine. ;D Like the classic dad move where every conversation, no matter how it starts, somehow ends up about being WWII. And refusing to change is just as bad. Ask basically every convoluted, archaic ECAD/MCAD/FEA software out there that requires 4 keystrokes and a command line argument to do some common function that could easily be done with a single click. It's a long list to choose from. But don't you dare change a single icon or the hordes of engineers who think UI design peaked at Windows 3.1 will raise hell. Shit, now my high horse is getting taller.

To make it clear I agree with you that there was nothing really wrong with the old picklist. And I agree with nearly ever complaint in this thread. Especially flooby about the terrible sorting, but he managed to do it without taking it in a "kids these days" direction.  :-//
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