Product filters – how to explain to the user if they are inclusive or exclusive
I am setting up some product filters for my site. I was getting quite confused until I got my head around it all.
So lets take something simple, like a clothing site, with product filters. Now some of the filters might be brands. If I check multiple brands e.g. Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, I expect to see all selected brands in the results, so just Calvin Klein OR Ralph Lauren.
But then there may be another section of filters called features, and I might select that I want a hood, and want pockets for example. Here I would expect to see clothes only with a hood AND pockets. i.e. Not clothes with a hood OR pockets.
So how do you know when to make a filter mutually inclusive or exclusive? I guess that is fairly simple, you just need to put yourself in the seat of the user and determine what you would expect to see if you chose certain filters.
But how is the user supposed to know? I guess they might just experiment with the filters and see what works, but they might not have got it right, and missed the product they wanted to buy. So perhaps some sort of note? Or a different kind of way to show its added to the filter, radio buttons instead of a check box for example, if the option is mutually exclusive.
Does anyone else have any ideas? Or am I over-examining this?