What should be triggered in a blog when deselecting a tag?

Question

I am writing a simple personal blog. The posts will have tags and I would like to give the reader the opportunity to choose, based on them, which posts are of interest to them.

To set the context, let's imagine two posts:

• "Something technical" with tags tech and learn
• "Learning methodologies" with the tag learn

The page opens with all posts, and a box with all tags set to "active" is provided on the top (with some explanation about the fact that one can click on them to filter the posts).

Which behaviour is expected by users when they click on a tag (say, learn) to deselect it?

1. since both posts carry the tag learn they both should dissapear?
2. since "Something technical" also carries tech it should stay (and "Learning methodologies" be hidden)?

I guess I am wondering whether I should go for the strategy "remove articles solely focused on a tag" (2. above) vs. "remove anything which deals with a tag" (1. above)

Answer 1

Did you ask your (potential) users about their expectation? Seriously, that should be the UX-focussed approach.

Not knowing anything about the target user group, or the content, my general recommmendation would be to make it work like a filter: Keep all articles which have an active tag assigned.

So, if you uncheck "learn", the "tech" tag is still active, and the "Something Technical" article should be visible.