ScienceDirect — faceted search definition: progressive refinement by independent facets/attributes
Summary
Claim: Faceted search is "a modality of information retrieval that enables users to progressively refine search results by restricting objects that match a query based on their properties, known as facets, which are independent dimensions or attributes of the data set."
Source: ScienceDirect Topics, "Faceted Search — an overview," undated overview page (accessed June 2026).
Confidence: Verified (academic-reference aggregator).
Why this matters for Candid: The clean, source-credible definition to use in client conversations. Anchors the difference between faceted refinement (multi-attribute, simultaneous) and a single-attribute filter or a plain category list. Cross-link Nielsen Norman Group — faceted search refines a large content set; controls + results displayed simultaneously for the UX-research framing and FlowHunt (vendor glossary) — faceted search plain-language: filter by multiple attributes simultaneously vs single-attribute filter for plain-language phrasing.
Related entries
Referenced by (4)
- reference Research brief: the searchable, structured catalogue as a working tool — when records-not-prose pays off (June 2026) relates-to
- reference FlowHunt (vendor glossary) — faceted search plain-language: filter by multiple attributes simultaneously vs single-attribute filter relates-to
- reference Nielsen Norman Group — faceted search refines a large content set; controls + results displayed simultaneously relates-to
- rule R1 — Build a searchable, structured catalogue when records are numerous, change often, or carry several independent queryable attributes relates-to