There seems to be two major methods of faceted search design- for the sake of my own vocabulary- I call them 'static' and 'dynamic' (I suppose there would be some formal terminology, but I couldn't find any). The Static model (Eg: Search for laptops in Yahoo Shopping- http://shopping.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AitSGJz_qz4V.Woy9WLIzSQbFt0A?p=laptop&did=) typically involves clicking through one facet element at a time (multiple select being present occasionally) causing the search results to filter accordingly
The Dynamic model (Eg: Flights in Kayak- http://www.kayak.com/r/K0nJrU) enables the user to quickly navigate different options to find the needed product/ service. In my mind, the dynamic model is a much better user experience because it allows for faster modification of facets. But there seems to be a dichotomy of implementation based on the product category. Travel products generally use the dynamic model, while Shopping uses static. The obvious difference between the two is in the temporal nature of the data involved. Travel data is transient. Shopping, not as much- the static model hence allows the creation of 'pages' for significant facet elements. I can however see the dynamic model being tweaked in such a way that it supports data with a longer shelf life and hence SEO friendly etc. If that is indeed the case, is there any other reason to use the static model? Am I missing something here? -Vishal ________________________________________________________________ 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
