Filtering: by default all checked or unchecked (additive vs subtractive)

Question

We're looking to overhaul our filtering for our users. As a starter we were looking to do some initial research online. I've hit a bit of an issue of understanding in doing so.

We currently operate 'subtractive' filtering:

• By default, everything is checked, user unchecks the data points they don't want to see.

Contrast to 'additive'/traditional filtering:

• default everything is unchecked, nothing is filtered in the group you've filtered unless something is applied. (below the filtering can be found on John Lewis' website)

I can't really find any information online, or uses cases as to when you'd use the first model, ideally we'd have it documented as to why this decision was made, and if not find out from our users, but that wasn't the task I was assigned in this overhaul.

The only scenario I could think of is if your users want to only filter out 1-2 areas of data, most of the time. Rather than filtering into specific areas, but this is just a scenario I've made up. Does it also just go against any universal standards of filtering?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

As I did some research on this topic a while ago, checking different eCommerce sites, apps and talking to people - I would say: It does not really matter if you are going additive or substractive.

My outcome as an example:

Answer 2

I think you are mixing two different elements, the already-seen option's tags (source/sentiment) and a filter (time/location).

I would separate the filter from the tags but in the presence of all exposed elements.

In this example, all sources/tags are selected except Telegram (or vice versa, depending on the design):

Answer 3

Consider the user's need, what is the use case? Do users need to quickly exclude one or two items or to narrow the search to one or two items? Your first mockup might have users simply want to exclude some sources, to reduce the noise some specific sources may produce in results. In your second mockup, users might want to select specific brands they want to see results from.

Selecting ALL may automatically deselect or select all other options, depending on your user needs: