dechezette

Edmunds.com has incorporated an interesting UI innovation with their breadcrumbing where the breadcrumbs also act as a sort of search filter.

This approach works particularly well in situations where you’re browsing product catalogs. In the case of Edmunds.com you can easily toggle between years, models, and makes. I could also see it having interesting implications on search results pages.

Beware applying this to breadcrumbs across the board. My team at Sequel tried this technique with a large corporate site and it didn’t quite translate. It ended up feeling superfluous.

I like this as a dynamic filter.  Makes a lot of sense.  I’d say it’s more filter that is designed like a breadcrumb than a breadcrumb that acts as a filter.

On the flipside, you could look at it like a 2D breadcrumb—adding another dimension to the otherwise single-dimensional breadcrumb.  Cool.