filters

Focus with filters

Description

When setting up filters in your design, begin with thinking about what filters you need to have and begin to group them. Consider the best way to narrow the data down to the information you care about. Choose logical groups and think about whether or not you’ll be using TAGS. The filters you decide on should help someone answers the questions who, what, when, where and how much. Generally filters are broken into 3 types of groups:

Metrics – numerical filters
Groups – text based groups, such as type of employee, lists of items, etc.
Time – time based filters, such as months, quarters

When laying them out in your design, they should be direct and easily accessible. Avoid lots of configuration screens – they tend to be chunky and not as easy to access.

Examples

Good usage: www.JWT.com – simple, obvious and categorial filtering supported by sort and searching controls.

home-JWT.com_1.jpg

Good usage: Crossfilter – rapid feedback on filtering.

Crossfilter1.jpg

Good usage: Elastic lists – advanced filtering shows cascading filters.

5-years-of-infosthetics1.jpg

Resources
Best practices for designing faceted search filters
Live Filter Design Pattern
Faceted search: 4 design tips

Related Principles
Encourage exploration
Keep it lightweight
Control detail density
Allow direct manipulation