Best GUI tool for X, Y, or Both situation- radio buttons, or check boxes?

Question

I have a medical reporting application, and three possible options for a query. I need the user to select one of three options, and I am trying to figure out if a radio button group is best or some other.

I need to know if the query is for patients who are

A) Equal to or over Retirement Age

or

B) Under Retirement Age

or

C) All Ages (i.e. both option A and option B together)

What's the best UI choice- A radio button group, or check boxes, or a combination?

Answer 1

Between those options I would suggest radio buttons, since you only want to allow for a single selection.

O - At or Over Retirement Age

O - Under Retirement Age

O - Both

If you use check boxes, people may wind up checking the top 2 instead of/in addition to "both".

Answer 2

From a user perspective, if I'm after a red shirt, I'd prefer seeing an option saying 'red shirt', rather than an option saying 'red' and another saying 'shirt'.

With checkboxes:

• Users have to actually read the two options and ensure the two combine into the whole (all age groups - which is really what they have articulated in mind). This is an exercise in logic.
• Users have to make one choice anyway, but if it's all ages they want - they have an extra operation to perform (they have to click on both choices).

With a combination of both, you get into the realm of complex logic.

So, the ideal would simply be to have 3 radio buttons:

O Below 65

O 65 and above

O All ages

A few notes:

• I've used the actual retirement age as 'Retirement age' requires users to know what it is. This is likely to differ between man and women, but the point is to make an explicit mentioning of what the retirement age is.
• I've tried to put the age left most - being more important.
• Below comes before above (ordinals).
• I wouldn't use 'both' - it requires reading both options. So the all ages is explicit - 'All ages'.