Confronted with the exact problem in my current position, I reinvented their filters along the lines of Severin's link. I kept the fields "minimized" until their needed. For very long lists (thousands of options), I pull the options via ajax auto-suggest fields. For limited option columns, I pull the options from the table into a dropdown list.
I think filters break down when you start thinking of a complex query. They don't work at all if the options don't make sense in the first place. I wouldn't want to start filtering on the perfect vehicle by first selecting the number of wheels and steel vs fiberglass...make some smart guesses on what I want, then let me filter on the 2-3 variables that make a big difference. There's a tendency to make the web page do everything you could conceivably want, when the number of conceivable wants is actually very small. I really like Dice.com's job search filters. They're not perfect, but they're out of the way, and took only a few minutes to figure out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=43844 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
