Should I use multiple search inputs or make the user search multiple times?

I am creating a tool where the user can create their own client groups.

I will present them with a list of their clients and they can complete a search to find family members, and then use checkboxes to group them together for submission. Given that family members may have different surnames or addresses I wanted to give multiple search boxes so the user could search: Bob, Smith and 123 East Street, with the results being all bobs, all smiths and all clients at 123 East Street.

example: I want to group a family together.

In this case I want to find everyone who matches: Bob, Smith or 123 East Street.

• Bob Smith 87 Elm Street (found you)


• Jane Smith 123 West street (found you)


• Tanner Tate 123 East Street (phew, found you)



• Tina Tate-Smith 123 East Street (found you)


• Mike Vick 123 East Street (found you)


• Bob Zeppoli 99 Rouge Street (don't need you)

The other option would be to have the user search for bob, check all the applicable boxes, and then complete a new search for Smith and so on. This seems like extra work and not the best experience.

Example

In this example I search for bob:

• Bob Smith 87 Elm Street (found you)

Then smith:

• Jane Smith 123 West street (found you)


• Tanner Tate-Smith 123 East Street (found you)

then 123 East Street:

• Tanner Tate 123 East Street (phew, found you)


• Mike Vick 123 East Street (found you)

Is there another option I am not thinking about or can the multi-search work for my purposes? I would put it in front of a user but I cannot find existing code to through into my prototype.

Answer

Approach 1. You can use single search form with chips

This way you can add multiple queries to the same search. After making a couple of queries the results will list all possible clients and then selecting the family group would be available.

However, there could be a ambiguity problem for the user not knowing whether he has queried a name or street because most of the streets are namen upon a person. To solve that, you can use a second approach:

Approach 2. Use 2 search forms.

You could use two search forms one for names and one for streets. This way the problem with the ambiguity should be solved. Again chips should be used to list the queries made by the user.

Use autocompletion for the search, if possible.

Here is an example of autocomplete functionality. This would help for the faster selection of queries.