Relative search criteria

Question

we are having a box with search criteria. The criteria are shown in a simple way, and can be expanded to a view with 'more search criteria'.

In this example, a code can be searched for, with several criteria. Some of the criteria can be relative, like dates in the 'Expires' section. Users should be able to give a relative date, like "previous week" or "the last 3 months".

These criteria can also be used later.

I would like to know if this behaviour already exists as a design pattern, and if not, how you can propose these options to a user? Should the value for such criteria also be saved? (when re-using this saved search, is it the last three months from today, or from the moment that these criteria were saved?)

Answer 1

The best thing I can think to do would be to have a select box with the possible "relative" timings, such as "Last Week", "Last 90 days", etc., and then finally, have one of the options be "Specific Date Range". Selecting that would then allow the user to enter specific dates. Otherwise, the control wouldn't be shown.

Answer 2

I agree with @thatuxguy. Google Analytics is perhaps a good example. It has a 'Date Range' dropdown which includes pre-set ranges like 'Today', 'Yesterday', 'Last Week' and 'Last Month', as well as a 'Custom' option. The latter enables the manual date range input.

With regards to the part of your question about saved searches ("Should the value for such criteria also be saved" and "when re-using this saved search, is it the last three months from today...?") I would suggest you always treat relative dates as being relative to the present day. I'm not sure what benefit the alternative would offer - a user can easily enter an arbitrary date range and save that instead.