What should be displayed when the user selects an overall category?

Question

Background

So I am working on a project for a client that has filters for different weather events. There are categories and sub categories (example below)

• Winter
  • Snow
  • Freezing Rain
  • Sleet
  • Slush

Currently, the user can type a specific event ("Snow") to just get that event. (see below)

Or the category name ("Winter"), and get all of the sub categories to be displayed. (see below)

Question

What should be displayed to the user in the filter pane when the category is selected? Should it be the category or all the sub categories?

Category displays

Subcategories display

My thought would be subcategories so if the user wants all but one, they can select the category and then filter down from there, but I'm not sure if that is the best way to go about it.

Answer 1

I think you could display both if the user typed the main category and dispaly sub-catgories if the user started with a subcategory:

Winter > Display: Winter, Snow, Freezing Rain,Sleet,Slush

Freezing Rain> Display: Sleet,Slush, Snow

It is also helpful to visually indicate structure when user are selecting, perhaps using a variation of colour to indicate Main category and sub-categories.

I think this is a more flexible approach and gives users more control.