Background

Our company has identified a usability issue within the Optimizely DAM search experience related to persistent filters.

According to current DAM behavior, filters remain active until they are manually cleared by the user. When a new search is performed, any previously applied filters continue to affect the search results. This is the expected system behavior as confirmed by Optimizely Support.

Problem

While technically functioning as designed, the current behavior is not intuitive for users and can easily lead to confusion.

Users often initiate a new search expecting results across the entire DAM repository, unaware that filters from a previous search session are still active. As a result, assets may appear to be missing, and users may incorrectly assume that the search function is not working properly.

The indication of active filters in the filter panel is easy to overlook, especially for infrequent users or when switching quickly between different search tasks.

Business Impact

-Search results may appear incomplete or incorrect.
-Assets can seem unavailable even though they are merely filtered out.
-Users are required to perform an additional manual step ("Clear Filters") before starting a new search.
-Increased user frustration and support requests.
-Reduced efficiency and confidence in the DAM search functionality.
-Risk of users concluding that content does not exist when it is actually hidden by previously applied filters.

Suggested Enhancement

We would like Optimizely to consider one or more of the following improvements:

Automatically clear filters when a user initiates a completely new search.
Provide an option for organizations to configure whether filters should persist between searches.

Make active filters significantly more visible within the search interface.
Display a prominent notification or warning when search results are being constrained by existing filters.

Offer a one-click "Search All Assets" experience that temporarily ignores previously applied filters.

Expected Outcome

-The search experience should be more intuitive and aligned with common user expectations.
-Users should immediately understand when filters are affecting results or, preferably, be presented with relevant search results without needing to manually reset search context.

This enhancement would improve discoverability of assets, reduce confusion, lower support demand, and increase overall usability of the DAM platform.