Faceted search

Faceted search can be a valuable addition to your website - helping your users to find information they are interested in quickly and easily. This article explores when to use it and the benefits it can bring to your website.

What is Faceted Search?

Faceted Search is the dynamic clustering of items or search results into categories that let users drill into search results by any value in any field. Each facet displayed also shows the number of hits within the search that match that category. Users can then drill down by applying specific constraints to the search results.

When is it useful?

Faceted Search can be used to improve the end user experience in a number of situations including when:

• You want to clearly show users what content is the most comprehensive on your site.
• You want to hint users at related content they might not have thought of looking for, but that could be of interest to them.
• Users are unsure of what content they could find on your site, or what to search for.
• Users need to filter content using multiple taxonomy terms at the same time.
• Your site has more content than can be displayed through fixed navigational structures, but you still want it to be navigable.
• Users often get empty result sets when searching your site.

Key features & benefits

By using a faceted search module on your website, users will benefit from the following features:

• Group search results by facet/category.
• Display a total number of hits per facet value.
• Refine search results by facet value.
• Update the facet menu based on refined search criteria.
• Display the search criteria in bread crumbs.
• Ability to exclude previously chosen facets from the search criteria whilst retaining others.

Find out more

To learn more about how our faceted search module can enhance the findability and user search experience, speak to our Web Solutions team on 01225 474300 or email sales@eduserv.org.uk.