---
title: "Faceted Search and Query Reformulation"
date: 2013-05-28
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2013/05/28/faceted-search-and-query-reformulation/
---
# Faceted Search and Query Reformulation
> Still, the rough estimate from our available data is obvious: **users change search strategy only 1% of the time**; 99% of the time they plod along a single unwavering path. Whether the true number is 2% or 0.5%, the big-picture conclusion is the same: users have **extraordinarily inadequate research skills **when it comes to solving problems on the Web.

In other words, users are poor searchers. That's because all most sites provide is a little white box. I assume users try different combinations of the same general keywords. But faceted search provides a way to intelligently filter the results, which indirectly creates a more advanced (or different) search query. When you search and see all these filters on the side, you can perhaps see the correct vocabulary to use. If you get too many results, you keep selecting filters until you get a manageable set of articles.

For example, in the gamification context, a search for "progressive levels" might not contain the right answer, but one facet that will appear is "mission." A mission is a series of tracks, which are collections of achievements. Users probably don't know all the "right" terms with their searches. Instead of typing every synonym they can come up with for "progressive levels," they can instead look at the list of facets and more quickly carve the results down to the information they want.