What is the most accurate opposite of "all selected"?
This post addressed the menu action which most closely opposed "select all," but I am looking for the filter criteria that most accurately represents "none selected," or the opposite of "all selected."
I have a UI that will display certain university courses based on semester. In general, the UI will display all courses whose semester matches one of those checked.
Say, for example, these are all of the available courses in a database:
- Chemistry 101, Fall 2016
- English 142, Spring 2017
- Anthropology 256, Spring 2017
- Biology 128, Fall 2017
- Geology 308, Spring 2018
If you checked only Spring 2017, for example, the UI would display [English 142, Anthropology 256].
Here is what the UI looks like with all semesters selected:
If all semesters are selected, the UI will display every course listed:
[Chemistry 101, English 142, Anthropology 256, Biology 128, Geology 308].
Now what if the UI has no semesters selected at all?
Should the UI show all courses [Chemistry 101, English 142, Anthropology 256, Biology 128, Geology 308] or an empty set [ ]? Which is more accurate and will make more sense to the average user?
If possible, I don't want to have an 'error' or 'check your input' message to the user if they select no semesters. The UI should display something no matter what is checked, even if no checkboxes are ticked.