facetlevel

Facetlevel is a concept used in information retrieval, data modeling, and user interface design to describe the granularity at which attributes are exposed as facets in a faceted search or filter system. It defines the hierarchical level of a feature within a facet taxonomy, determining whether a particular attribute is presented as a broad, high-level filter or as a narrow, specific filter. For example, in a product catalog, the attribute "Brand" might be a higher-level facet, while "Brand > Series" or "Brand > Model" would be lower-level facets; the facetlevel controls which of these are available to users at a given time.

Facetlevel is often governed by the facet schema, taxonomy, or ontology used by a search interface. Systems may support multiple facetlevels, allowing users to drill down through levels or to abstract away finer distinctions to improve navigation. In some designs, facetlevel also influences indexing, as data at different levels may be indexed separately or aggregated for performance.

Usage: designers choose facetlevels to balance search precision against interface complexity. In dynamic faceting, the available facets can adjust to the query context, user role, or dataset characteristics, effectively adapting the facetlevel on the fly.

Challenges include maintaining consistent facet boundaries, avoiding facet explosion, and ensuring that users understand hierarchical relationships between facets. See also faceted search, taxonomy, ontology, hierarchical classification, facet pruning.