Resin Matrix

Anycubic does publish a resin comparison page. It lists properties down the side and resins across the top, so the table runs about 4,160 pixels wide: close to three screen widths of sideways scrolling on a laptop. You can't sort it, it has no prices, and it was out of date. It still listed two resins the store no longer sells and left out two of the newest.

Coming in new to resins, I didn't yet know which numbers mattered. I wanted to see every option first and then work out what set each one apart. On that page, comparing even two resins meant scrolling back and forth and holding numbers in my head.

I pulled every value from the Specification tab of each product page on Anycubic's US store: hardness, tensile strength, elongation, impact strength, flexural strength and modulus, Young's modulus, shrinkage, viscosity, density, exposure time, wash method, odor and the 1 kg price.

Putting the numbers side by side exposed problems you'd never notice one page at a time.

• check_circleAnycubic swaps two labels on every page. The figure called “bending modulus” (about 15–70 MPa) is really flexural strength, and “bending strength” (350–3,300 MPa) is really the modulus. The matrix uses the correct names.
• check_circleSome store listings disagreed with the product's own spec sheet. Where they differed, I used the spec sheet and noted it on the page.
• check_circleEvery value is stored as a published range, like 35–45 MPa, rather than flattened to one number, so the table shows exactly what Anycubic claims.

The page opens with all 17 resins on screen. Nothing is hidden behind a picker or a "select resins to compare" step, because when you don't know the category yet, seeing the whole range is how you learn it.

Flipping Anycubic's layout made that work. With one resin per row, every property becomes a sortable column, and all sixteen columns fit across a large desktop screen. A star marks the standout value in each column, whether that's the highest or the lowest, and seven cards above the table name the leader for the most common questions. Filters for each family, water-washable resins and sold-out stock narrow the list only when you ask them to.

When the table re-sorts, each row slides from where it was to where it lands instead of jumping. You can follow a resin you were watching and see how far it moved, which makes the difference between two options something you see rather than read.

Clicking a leader card sorts by that property and scrolls the table into view. Hovering a column name first explains what it measures, so you know what you're sorting by before you click. All motion is skipped when a device asks for reduced motion.

I wanted the matrix to feel like it belonged next to the store it draws from, so I read the store's live styles in the browser and borrowed them: the #005AFF blue, the fully rounded pill buttons, light gray panels and MiSans Latin, with Inter as the fallback the store itself uses. Light and dark modes share the same blue, and a single sun and moon button in the corner switches between them.

A table full of MPa and J/m is only useful if you know what those numbers mean for a print. Rather than adding a glossary, I put the explanations where the questions come up.

• check_circleChoosing a family fades in a short note on what that type of resin is good at and what it costs you, in plain words.
• check_circleHovering a column name explains the property, gives its unit and says whether higher or lower is better, or that neither end is better.
• check_circleHovering a resin's name lists what it's recommended for.

The first version said everything at once. Each resin's name carried its wash method, odor and a sentence of uses. Every value had a small bar underneath showing where its range sat against the lineup, every header had a line of units, and an intro paragraph and section headings sat above it all. I reviewed it as a buyer would and took things away.

• check_circleThe range bars went first. They looked like data visualization but didn't change any decision I made, and they doubled the height of every cell.
• check_circleUnits and “higher is better” notes moved from under each header into its tooltip, so every header fits on one line.
• check_circleThe use notes under each name became a hover tooltip, and wash method and odor got their own sortable columns.
• check_circleThe intro paragraph, the eyebrow and the section heading came out. The title, a small last-updated date and the table say enough.

Sixteen columns won't fit on a phone, so the table scrolls sideways there and snaps gently to column edges, while the resin name stays pinned on the left. You always know which row you're reading. Light and dark modes switch with one button and fade between palettes.

The matrix doesn't add any data Anycubic doesn't publish. It changes how quickly the differences show up.

• check_circleComparing two resins takes a glance across one row, instead of three screens of sideways scrolling.
• check_circleFinding the standout for any property takes one click on its column, and the star shows where each resin leads.
• check_circleEach family's tradeoff is spelled out in a sentence, so the numbers come with a reason to care about them.
• check_circleA full 17-resin overview fits on one desktop screen, which is the view I wanted most before narrowing anything down.

I built the Resin Matrix with Claude over one day. Claude gathered the specs from all 17 product pages, read the store's styles, wrote the page and published it to its own GitHub repository. I set the direction and reviewed every change on the live page.

Because each change went live within a couple of minutes, the iteration stayed quick. I could ask for something, judge it on the real page and keep it or cut it. That made it easy to take things out once I saw they weren't helping.