Should product filter be disabled if it only works for one checkbox at a time?

Question

My company is about to launch a new version of the product website but the filter system is not quite functional. The problem is that users only can check one filter item at a time to sort products. For example, if you want to see yellow and blue products, you can only select either yellow or blue checkbox not both of them. If you select the second checkbox, the page will reload and only shows the second choice you selected. This is pretty annoying and not functional as a filter system we intended. Plus, when you check a filter item, the page reload weirdly (it looks like the layout becomes broken) and it doesn’t let you select the second filter item in a different category.

Our company hired a web development agency but they said they cannot fix the issues but we need to launch the new website very soon.

So here's a question, do you think we should disable the filter system completely or is it still worth using the filter system even it only let you select one checkbox? I've suggested to disable but not just from my assumption, we need some feedback from others to make the final decision.

Answer 1

I will suggest this.

Replace all filter options with radio buttons and code them to be mutually exclusive.

That way, the expectations are set straight and this will not frustrate users. The lack of a modern filtering search will remain; but at least nothing is functionally wrong in doing so.

Goodluck with the launch.

Answer 2

Filters that cannot be combined could be seen as categories: if you can either select only yellow products or only blue products is just like selecting the "Yellow products" / "Blue products" category.

You could keep just 1 or 2 mutually exclusive filters that could be really meaningful and useful for the users, and translate the other filters into categories that can be navigated.