2019 was another solid year for Samtec.com. We continued to release new content, features, and software upgrades to improve the digital experience for our web users.
To kick off 2020, let’s look back at some of the top features released in 2019. For a complete list of all web articles, check out the Web Updates category
Login System Upgrade
In the Summer of 2019, we launched the upgraded login system on Samtec.com. This upgrade replaced a nearly 10-year-old system that was in need of several updates to stay consistent with user-experience and security best practices.
It also introduced several new self-service features and allows us to extend our sign-on capabilities to other systems, setting up users to be able to do things like manage invoices online in the near future.
Check out the full release post here.
Development Kits Section Upgrades
Our offering for Development Kits that streamline product development grew immensely in 2019, and so did the web content that supports it.
It has grown so much that we’ll be releasing another major update to this section in early 2020.
Check out the current kits that we offer here, and be sure to keep an eye on this section for the upgrades we’ll be releasing soon.
Family Page Experience Upgrades
We made several user-experience upgrades to our family pages on Samtec.com in 2019.
These pages are one step before you begin configuring a product on the website, and are some of our most vital to getting web users to the correct product.
We’re approaching 200 different family pages on the website, all with unique rich content in many varieties, including product imagery, literature, descriptions, videos, downloads, and more.
We added new call-to-action buttons, a standalone video section, new product imagery, and more.
Check out the full list of upgrades in this blog post.
Industry Standards Section Experience Upgrades
Our support for industry standards continues to grow, as does the content and user-experience on the website.
In 2019, we gave the main Industry Standards page a major facelift. Each standard now has a description, logo, and an easy link to learn more. Additionally, at the bottom, you see more organizations that we are a part of but may not have content featured on our website.
Check out the new Industry Standards Page here.
5G Content Experience
The 5G revolution is picking up steam and is poised to create a lot of noise in 2020.
On the carrier side, T-Mobile and Sprint have merged to create a strong #3 carrier in the US. Verizon project that half of the US will have 5G coverage by mid-2020. Network equipment manufacturer Ericsson predicts that half the world will have 5G coverage by 2024.
We created a content experience on Samtec.com to detail which of our products can best support 5G. You can check that out here.
You can also read more about how Samtec is supporting 5G technology in this detailed blog post.
Pricing and Delivery Design Update
In Summer of 2020, we rolled out a design upgrade to our highly used Pricing and Delivery page. This is, by numbers, the highest-trafficked area on Samtec.com
This update widens the screen to a full-width view to give the user more room to work with, while also providing a more logical separation between the two functions of this page – pricing… and delivery.
Lastly, we’ve repositioned some of our alerts about things like packaging, etc. These will now show up towards the bottom of the page so they won’t interfere with the user experience.
To try this out for yourself, login to Samtec.com and navigate to the P&D page here – https://wwws.samtec.com/my-samtec/pricing.aspx
SnapEDA Integration for eCAD Models
One of the main draws for engineers to Samtec.com is the widespread availability of technical documentation throughout our website, virtually all of which is available without a login or even an email address.
With the addition of our configurator tool and 3D model availability a few years ago, 3D model downloads from Samtec.com have skyrocketed in popularity.
Now we have expanded this capability by offering easy Electrical and Mechanical model downloads, again, without requiring a login or email address.
Through a partnership with SnapEDA, whose mission is to help engineers build products faster by removing design barriers, we have just launched a new addition to our product pages to allow users to download electrical and mechanical models in just a few clicks.
Read more about this continuing update in this blog post.
Expanded Product Availability Data Throughout Samtec.com
One of the major reasons people love Samtec is because of our lighting fast lead times and product availability. While competitor lead-times are measured in multiple weeks or months, ours are often measured in days.
Since the early 2000s, website users have always been able to go to our Pricing and Delivery page and run a lookup for a part, but we’ve now made this information even easier to find and have spread it around in more places throughout the website.
These include Solutionator, Search, Technical Specifications, and more. You can read the full details of this upgrade here.
User-Experience Upgrade to Series Product Pages
We first released the most modern version of our Series Product Pages (aka Tech Specs pages) in March of 2016. These pages make up the bread and butter of Samtec.com, with nearly 1000 different variations based on the product you are viewing.
These also lead into full part number product pages, which number in the trillions (yes, trillions), but we’ve left those alone for now.
With 2016’s update, it was a major upgrade from a previous version not only in design, but also in back-end architecture, performance, and features.
Since then, we have learned a lot about what our users expect and how they behave once they’re on this page.
With the 2019 update, we have kept essentially all of those features intact, but have focused on bringing several of the key actions UP the page to be easier to access, and simplifying the rest of the page by moving some of the lesser-used features to other areas.
Read more about this design upgrade here in this blog post.
Design Upgrade to Top-Level Product Pages and Main Navigation
The top-level of product categories on Samtec.com feature our Connectors, Cables, Optics, and RF pages, which give users a jumpoff point into the four main categories of products that Samtec sells.
These pages were first released in 2016 with a very simple approach, to get the user to the next step in the process.
With this update, these pages were given a much-needed design update and several new features:
- All new product imagery and more neutral background colors
- Side navigation to jump between each section more easily
- Access to our wide variety of digital tools with a single click
- Better call-to-action buttons to further assist in navigation
- A stunning header image so the user knows they’re in the right place
You can read the full details of this update here.
High-Speed Cable Builder
In December of 2019, we released a major upgrade to our High-Speed Cable Builder. This upgrade adds several new products, simplifies the product filtering and selection process, and allows the user to easily configure end options once they have found what they need.
We’ll be releasing a detailed blog post about this application in the next couple of weeks. For now, you can check out the cable builder application here.
Upgraded Locations Search
With dozens of global sales locations and hundreds of global distributor locations, our old way of listing everywhere you could find Samtec was getting a bit cumbersome.
This new version of our locations page puts this application on a page of its own and upgrades it from a text-based version to a fully interactive map, complete with geo-IP lookup features, as well as search and filtering features.
Read the full details of this upgrade here.
Standalone Video Search
Samtec now houses nearly 200 videos. This video search tool allows users to browse, search, and filter through all of the videos that are featured throughout Samtec.com.
You can search by keyword, and/or use the filters we have provided to pair down your list even further.
Read more about this upgrade here.
Performance and Efficiency Upgrades
Lastly, we capped off 2019 by completing a number of performance and efficiency upgrades to Samtec.com, which help increase the load-times of the websites and overall provide a better user experience for our web visitors.
Coming Soon in 2020
Thanks for following along and being a loyal reader of The Samtec Blog. Keep an eye out for these new updates this year.
- Revamp for our Development Kits Section
- Upgraded Version of Picture Search
- Upgrade Cart and e-Commerce Features
- Personalization Features
- And more…
We’re always looking for ways to improve your online experience.
Drop your email address in the form below if you want to stay in the loop with these updates, as well as the rest of our blog content.
If you have any feedback or suggestions for our web team, feel free to send an email to eHelpDesk@samtec.com.
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