Should an applied filter involve a data refresh?

Question

Let's assume a page displaying a list of activities.
They are some "Sport", some "Cinema" etc...

To the Left of the list, there is a special column allowing user to filter displayed data.
I'm focusing on the filter: Activity Type.

So the basic workflow is:

1. The page displays all activities (without any filters) with refreshed data (query database for instance).
2. The user selects the filter "Sport", in order to hide other kind of activities.

My question is: Should the set of the filter "Sport" involve a refresh of data?
Or should it just extract the corresponding data from the existing data (like a simple DOM manipulation for instance), even possibly stale?

Assuming that each click on distinct filter involves the refresh of data displayed, what strategy should I choose if user wants to refresh the current data (meaning keeping the same current filter)?
Thus, if I display a button named "Refresh" near to the items list, I think that can confuse the user => They can think: "If they place a refresh button near the items list, it means that setting one filter doesn't refresh the data... (and of course that was not the case) "

Or maybe...dealing with websockets, refreshing automatically the data (or warning of new items)? Therefore allowing to drop this concept of refresh button.

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

A filter is a filter and a sort is a sort

I find it rather hard to understand the purpose of the refresh button.

But the answer to your main question is simple - filter means filter, sort means sort. When you filter something you take away other things. Here's a dictionary definition:

Pass through a device to remove unwanted material.

Consider what will happen if you would need in the future to offer both sorting and filtering.

So if it is labelled 'filter', you have to refresh and remove irrelevant records. I'm next to certain that if pressing filter will do sort, user will be baffled by why they see records that they have chosen to filter.

Answer 2

Re: option 1

I'm assuming you have this control area because there is more than 1 filter that can be applied at a time.

Consider renaming the refresh button to something actionable like "Refine Results"

That will make more contextual sense for the user.

Also look at how sites like ravelry.com, kijiji, eBay, and autotrader.ca do it. They have a million filters on the side.

(editorial note : screenshots coming)

re: option 2

Drop the refresh button altogether and auto refresh. I'm a fan of this option because it provides instant feedback but it makes more sense if you have only a few filter options.

Google has a primary filter (search) and it used to have an "advanced search" button that they've since renamed.

If you have too many filters, maybe consider which ones are primary or commonly used and use progressive disclosure for the rest.

Edit: In a more related site - because you're talking about activities- also look at coursera.org course listing. They use a persistent check box system which refreshes the list dynamically.

Edit2: Upon further thought - Provide Option 1 or Option 2 but not both unless required for some browser limitations. There is no need for this redundancy especially if it causes more wait time for the user via a confusing refresh function which essentially does nothing once the list is filtered based on their selections at the time of selection.