I sometimes feel bad for this kind of advertisements - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 03:50:19 am
content: I just don't know what to say:just go to maxim-ic.com and see their banner's photos. They clearly illustrate the point of the ads, but they look SO edited, you just feel something is not right.http://www.maxim-ic.com/design_guides/en/MOBILE_POWER.pdf^I really feel bad for this one^ The astronaut probably was the first person they could get to put the costume on. And look, you can see his left arm on the picture. The costume just looks too fake, and it looks wrinkled. I prefer the classic random 1's and 0's coming out of an IC than this kinds of failed pictures.Now I am a traitor of MaximAnd now compare them to the Atmel's website, they almost look futuristic.http://www.atmel.com/I hope they are not paying thousands of dollars for a company to do that for them.This was posted on September, 2011. The adds may have changed, but I am too lazy to take screenshots right now. Maybe tomorrow.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 05:36:48 am
content: Quote from: ivan747 on September 14, 2011, 03:50:19 amAtmel reworked that website to that look a few month ago. Unfortunately, there was a "design" company at work who decided it should be much harder to find information. Previously they just had a long list of all application notes. You could went through the list, see an interesting title, say "oh that looks interesting" and download the application note.Now you first have to select a chip, then they show you "applicable" application notes for that chip. Hello? Since when does one first select the chip and then the job it has to do? This is what amateurs do.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 06:08:22 am
content: I still find it funny that one of the best website for finding/searching/buying electronics is Digikey and they have the most simple interface possible. (Text based pages with long lists of items, no animated drop downs, no pages full of pictures etc.)Company's almost need two separate websites, one for *show* with pretty animated pages and categories, something the sales and design people can drool over.Then a second page for actual electronic engineers with fast loading raw text pages so we can find stuff quickly and do proper parametric searches.

author: ToBeFrank
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 06:38:04 am
content: Quote from: Psi on September 14, 2011, 06:08:22 amDigikey is badly in need of an update. If they didn't have such great service, I wouldn't bother with their web site when it's so much easier to search on Mouser or Newark.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 08:57:22 am
content: QuoteWhy? I really don't care what a web site looks like as long as I can get the info I need. Flashy graphics etc. rarely contribute to useability, and can be a major pain when on a slow connection, e.g. 3G etc.Nobody is going to decide to buy a part because the website looks pretty, however sales will inevitably lost if the website makes it hard to get info.Digikey has had the best parametric search for a long time, and I can't see the others catching up any time soon.For general browsing, a paper catalogue is still hard to beat.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 09:41:02 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 14, 2011, 08:57:22 amThe Digikey site is better than a paper catalogue, while the latter is always easier to read, it lack that all important search.Digikey have the best mix thus far, the pictures and more importantly the full data sheets are attached to the actual part.Sure the interface could have some improvements, but please not a labyrinth of marketing and lame eye candy and not at the expense of accessible tech data.

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 10:42:52 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 14, 2011, 08:57:22 amI don't care about the spartan design. It is fast to load and easy to read. However, there are a number of things they should improve in the venue of actually getting you useful information.1) Different packaging of the same component should be combined into a single item. Cut-tape, tray, and tape and reel don't need three different entries. It clutters up the search results and makes it hard to find what you need.2) They need more photos for mechanical components. Searching for connectors, switches, and that sort of thing on digikey is infuriating. Obviously I don't need a picture for every PDIP or SOIC, but digikey has so many 'no photo' results that I forget sometimes they even have a photo field. Of course, farnell has enough incorrect photos it isn't always better, but digikey is pretty poor. Their paper catalog is quite good in this regard.3) They could use more data on their product pages. Their pages may be super fast loading, but if farnell has enough data I don't have to load the data sheet to see that the product is unsuitable it is a win.4) Digikey doesn't tell you the number of matches you will get when you go through the parametric search. This is a tricky issue, as I am sure all the javascript farnell uses to update those counts as you select other parameters is detrimental to speed, but with digikey it is too easy to accidentally select down to zero results without telling you which field you picked didn't match anything. In a similar vein, it would be very nice if digikey did like other distributors and allowed you to continue refining search parameters from the results page. Again, this might cost too much speed, but I think if done properly it would work well.5) Numeric ranges are an area where every distributor does pitifully. It is bad enough for a single number: if I want to buy some BNC cables that are around 1 meter, I have to select a whole range (at least they now normalize metric and imperial lengths rather than sorting them alphabetically). This isn't such a hardship, but it would be nicer if I could say "80 cm to 1.5 meter" or ">= 3 feet" or something. It is much more annoying when what you are searching for is itself a range, like supply voltage for a regulator or op-amp. Ideally you should be able to select a range, and also say whether the parts range should include that entirely, or fall entirely within the range. Generally I have to just give up and go to the manufacturer's websites for this, but distributors could do a better job.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 11:52:26 am
content: i vote digikey as best engine i've used. fancy graphics only deserve in "partner finding" site, not in technical site.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 12:36:29 pm
content: Quote from: ejeffrey on September 14, 2011, 10:42:52 amAbsolutely.QuoteYes - no photo is better than a wrong one. At least Farnell have a quick way to report errors with a 'spotted an error' button, something all sites should have, although I've never checked back to see if they actually fix them when reported.Quote..assuming that data is right, again, no data forcing you to look at the datasheet is better than wrong data.QuoteDigikey are better than most but still not perfect - looking for stuff like voltage regs can be a nightmare...QuoteNo argument there but there are times when a paper catalogue wins - lookinf for related products, or just idle browsing. I've often stumbled upon interesting stuff I'd never have known existed while looking for something else.

author: Time
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 01:56:27 pm
content: The digikey and mouser interfaces seem fundamentally the same. I do prefer mouser though but thats probably because I used them in gradschool and had 2 day turn around times since I was in Texas.

author: Frangible
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 04:57:58 pm
content: For a short time Digikey had a Flash based catalog with animated page turning and swooshing sounds. I sent them a really harsh note telling them that if I wanted entertainment and sounds I would go to YouTube or some such site. They actually replied, saying that it was going to be changed soon. I doubt I was the only one who complained about that, so I think they are keeping their website as lean as possible. Digikey gets lots of points in my book for that.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 06:45:12 pm
content: I kinda expected this to happen. Now the discussion is about Digi-Key.The point was:-If you don't have the money to make the ad, please don't just have the marketing guy do a Photoshop mockup and proudly put it in your front page.-Please, avoid astronaut costumes on advertisement campaign. You might get the kids to like it, but engineers will know no one inside a suite like that would survive in vacuum.-Futuristic fridges with blinking lights are cool

author: Time
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 06:51:06 pm
content: Deep Space Pajamas

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 14, 2011, 11:40:02 pm
content: Quote from: ivan747 on September 14, 2011, 06:45:12 pmdiscussion is like that. your issue A brings up issue B and discussion migrates towards that.QuoteThe point is that management of many companies can lose the plot, if they cannot have the splash screen of their web presence kept on song, what does it say about the direction all other aspects of the business are likely to be heading?

author: FenderBender
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2011, 04:13:06 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 14, 2011, 08:57:22 amParametric search on Digikey is better...but yes, browsing on other sites is much more enjoyable. Digikey does have more accurate pictures in my opinion. Sometimes when I buy stuff off Mouser, it looks nothing like what I saw in the picture...which might mess up something. Or the picture does not correspond to that specific part number. Or just wrong pictures in general.But it feels like a website that I might have used 10 years ago. And then to add a part to my cart, or heaven forbid, delete! They couldn't have made it too much harder to do. The website is simple, but they could do much better. The product index is quite lacking imo.But they do have the lowest shipping prices (atleast for me), and they typically carry a lot more silicon than Mouser. I don't know whose in charge of stocking up Mouser, but they miss some really "obvious" parts sometimes...leaving Digikey the only alternative.Newark is okay, but I'm not too fond of their selection sometimes. MCM Electronics, one of their subsidiaries, carries a lot of old EOL parts that are hard to find. That's pretty cool.Paper catalogs piss me off though. And my hands smell like newsprint afterwards.

author: ToBeFrank
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 15, 2011, 07:15:50 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on September 14, 2011, 08:57:22 amI don't recall saying they are better because of "flashy graphics" or because they "look pretty". They are better because they both do live filtering with live item counts. Maybe my computer is just fast, but this is faster for me than having to submit Digikey's form over and over and go forward and back.QuoteI prefer Mouser's and Newark's live filtering searches for the reasons above. Maybe Digikey had the best search for a long time, but they don't anymore.