Filters can make or break your UX, and designing them is not as straightforward as you might think.
A lot has been written about filters in the context of the user’s journey, complex enterprise software, UI patterns, and UX patterns.
Surprisingly, there’s little to nothing written for designers about the logic of how filters work, outside the realm of engineering articles. Which is a shame, given how important they are for the user’s experience.
If you don’t understand the logic behind how filters affect results, your designs will be limited to just visuals, you’ll be shifting a critical part of the user experience to engineers, and you won’t be able to discuss tradeoffs if needed.
Not as straightforward as you might think
Filters are so common that you might feel a false sense of confidence when designing some for the first time. If you’ve tried it, you know it can get confusing real fast.
To prepare for the battle, let’s look at how filters work.
What are filters, really?
Filters are operations that let you select what you want from a group. They work by showing or hiding items that share common characteristics.
“…[Filters] analyze a given set of content to exclude items that don’t meet certain…