Faceted Search adds speed and dimension to the simple search.
We recently upgraded the Publications search on the Energy + Environmental Economics site with a nifty Smart Filtering plugin.
Unlike traditional searches, which might give you multiple dimensions to search but have a single “search” button that processes the full request, Smart Search gives you immediate feedback. Choose one dimension in the search, and as soon as you’ve made a choice, like the year 2017, the search results immediately update to only items matching that subsearch.
So on the search filters:
as soon as you choose Year: 2017, you will see only available 2017 items in the list below:
It’s a small, powerful time saver for complex search sets, and together with friendly categories, user interface, and database structure, it can make finding content on your site quicker and more powerful.
See it in action here: ethree.com/publication/