Improving the filtering UX for enterprise solutions
By: Vlad Derdeicea
Tags: Enterprise, Usability, Filters, User Research, Faceted Search

Every day we need to sort through a ton of information in order to find what is relevant to us. In some cases the information is already curated, in others we need to find meaning in the vast overload of items.

If software contains large amounts of data (and an enterprise app always does) then filtering is a must. Filtering is useful for any sort of listing interface, even without an extended list. Filters are also a great chance to present the different options, variety of data, improve the UX and decrease the time a user needs to perform a specific task (thus being more effective).

This article focuses on desktop filtering for web or app enterprise solutions. Mobile filtering is a totally different topic that deserves special attention and a separate write-up. It is also worth saying that this article is based on extensive research needed for optimizing and polishing the existing interface with our design team.

Why Filtering is important

Large amounts of data or information need to be displayed in a structured and comprehensive way so that the user can easily find what they need in just a couple of clicks.

There are 3 major ways of doing this, by using Filters, Faceted Navigation and Data Tables. Although Filters and Faceted Navigation are related and do the same basic job, they have important differences: Filters are fixed and define a category, or a group of items, where Faceted Navigation is much more flexible and can describe many different dimensions of the content.

1. Filters

In an enterprise app, where a user is browsing through 10k+ files or inputs, it is useful to either define the items that the user may be interested in (by defining their work persona and permissions) and always display the most relevant information, or to give the user the option of switching between these filters any time. There are two major benefits to limiting the total list of displays:

Depending on the servers, it can massively decrease the loading time. The user has a more comprehensible amount of data to analyse.

After the first time the user defines his/her preferences, it is convenient to have a “Remember” option for the next time, however it is also very important that the user can easily change those filters.

When joining Medium you are asked what your interests are so that you get the most tailored experience by reading the topics most relevant to you; this is the first level of basic filtering.

A good practice would also be to display the total amount of items listed within that category and segregate the sections visually (in my example I’ve used tabs, but if the server allows it I would also give the option of browsing all).

2. Faceted Navigation

Faceted Navigation refers to the many ways that a user can narrow down the data displayed within a pre-selected category or subcategory. The purpose of these selections is to highlight the most important elements of the data and to provide the user ideas of what they can search for.

There are many forms of faceted navigation, from different styles of dropdown (multi or single selection) to precise range (usually used as a day picker, or exact price range. etc.) or even general range, where you just need to select some ballpark figures. Other display types can include color selection, area on a map, rating and many more.

Today we will be focusing on the most common types used within an enterprise app when trying to limit the number of results as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

It is really important that all of the selections that the user makes are obvious and have immediate confirmation so that he/she can easily see which selection is limiting the results and by how many.

Giving the user the option of removing multiple selections at once means they can easily reset the search and start over if needed.

2.1. Best Layout Practices

Studies have shown that more than 42% of users don’t even look at the left side vertical selection (mostly due to banner blindness) and they focus on the middle upper section.

Other studies have shown that even when all of the filters and criteria are expanded and visible users still don’t interact with them. In most cases they consider the sorting feature a filter component.

Having everything visible in the user’s visual range proved to be much more effective for Ikea’s website layout:

The subjects were observed to both apply filters more frequently when faced with this filtering design and to never mistake the sorting widget as being the only filtering options. — Christian Holst

Using only a horizontal filter has other major benefits: it can save a lot of space that can be used to display the content and, in the long run, it can be easily implemented on multiple UIs because it takes up an equal amount of space above any sort of listing (grid).