User Interface Implementations of Faceted Browsing

Mike Padilla has written about "Faceted Browsing Interfaces" in "Digital Web Magazine" on April 29, 2008. To quote:-

Just as it is important to choose the proper knife when slicing-n-dicing vegetables, it is critical to prescribe a suitable user interface to support faceted filtering. Faceted filtering allows you to narrow down a large list of objects to a manageable size by applying flexible combinations of attribute filters in any order. Rather than forcing you down fixed paths within a website’s information architecture, faceted filtering allows you to multi-dimensionally slice-n-dice the information in a manner that best accommodates your specific needs. A user interface that optimally supports faceted filtering must expose its robust functionality in a way that expresses affordances, controls complexity, and follows existing standards that have been pre-established across the web.

• You Know What You Want


• Filtering Sequence


• Rich & Complex or Basic & Simple


• No Such Thing as a Free Lunch


• UI Design for Faceted filtering


• What’s Happening on the Web


• Slice-n-Dice or Puree?

(See also Decision Tree Diagram for selecting anappropriate filtering UI)