The Principals of Gestalt Psychology in UX design.
The Law of Similarity
The law of similarity is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organisation which observes our group-forming bias when items share superficial characteristics.
The Law of Proximity
The law of proximity is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organisation which observes the effect item proximity has on our perception of grouping
The Law of Familiarity/Meaningfulness
The law of meaningfulness, also referred to as the law of familiarity, is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organisation which observes the human tendency to group visual elements when they form a meaningful or personally relevant object, item or visual scene.
The Law of Symmetry
The law of symmetry is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organisation which observes the human tendency to perceive visual elements as grouped when they are part of a symmetrical arrangement.
The Law of Continuity
The law of continuity is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organisation which identifies the human ability to determine object constancy when the whole object is not completely visible. In addition, this law identifies how we are biased to perceive interlinking or bisecting visual elements as continuous forms in a particular direction.
The Law of Common Fate
The law of common fate is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organisation which identifies the human tendency to perceive visual elements moving in the same direction or in unison as grouped.
The Principle of Closure
There are times where we cannot see a whole object, but the human mind combines the visual information available to form a whole meaningful object; this is referred to as the law of closure, a Gestalt principle of perceptual organisation.
‘New’ Grouping Laws
The way in which items are grouped affects the speed with which we can extract information from a display.
The Law of Element Connectedness
The law of element connectedness represents one of three Gestalt grouping laws added by Stephen Palmer to the existing laws. This particular law identifies the perceptual tendency to group elements when they are connected.
The Law of Common Region
We have a strong tendency to perceive items as grouped when they are within the same clearly delineated region of space.
The Law of Synchrony
Stephen Palmer added the law of synchrony to the existing Gestalt laws of grouping. This law is similar to common fate, but is distinguished on the basis that it identifies the grouping bias when visual elements appear at the same time yet they are not in motion.
Octavio Ocampo: Playing with perception
Octavio Ocampo, one of Mexico’s most prolific artists, is renowned for his use of meaningful individual images to construct one, whole meaningful scene, such as ‘The Family of Birds’ shown above. A wide selection of Ocampo’s other works can be seen at the following link
