---
title: "Second-Level Faceted Navigation [Organizing Content 8]"
date: 2010-05-25
description: "Findability / organizing content   1.0 New Series: Organizing Content [Organizing Content 1]   1.2 Introducing Project..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2010/05/25/second-level-faceted-navigation-organizing-content-8/
---
# Second-Level Faceted Navigation [Organizing Content 8]
Peter Morville and Jeffery Callendar, two information architects, call faceted navigation ["arguably the most significant search innovation of the past decade."](http://www.alistapart.com/articles/design-patterns-faceted-navigation/) Because of its importance in content findability, one aspect I want to now explore further is a *second-level* faceted browsing system.

Second-level facets help increase the "scent of information," as information designers call it. Like animals sensing the signs of their prey, users stalking content feel motivated to keep looking if they see signs that they're "getting warmer," as [Jakob Nielsen puts it](http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030630.html). Second-tier facets provide signs that the user is getting closer to making a kill. 

In the following diagram, the user has landed on a topic. The user may have searched for "going on undercover operation" to find the topic. Or the user may have browsed to this topic through one of the first-level facets on the left.

It's not quite the right topic, but the result tells the user he or she is on the right track, since it does address undercover operations. Now the user can refine the selection by choosing one of the second-level facets below the topic.

![Second level faceted navigation](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/internal_facetedbrowsing11.png)

Here second-level facets can be powerful. In the above example, I chose to include the following:

- See topics related to undercover operations

- See topics related to tropical areas.

- See probable next steps.

- See videos about undercover operations.

- See most popular topics related to undercover operations.

- See diagrams about undercover operations.

I could add more facets as appropriate. For example, since the topic addresses weaponry, I could add "See topics relating to weaponry," and so on. Cross-references within the topics also provide second-level navigation. Using one of these second-level facets, the user can refine his or her search for the right information.

For more examples of faceted browsing, see [cokeonshelf's Flickr photostream](http://www.flickr.com/photos/38573098@N00/).

### How You Create Second-Level Facets

The technical steps for creating second-level facets depend on the help authoring tool you're using. In Flare, you can add a concept to topics (similar to how you can add tags or categories to posts in WordPress). Once you have added concepts to your topics, you can then insert a concept help control in a topic.