Apply Gestalt principles into design
Gestalt principles are quite useful theory to understand how viewers perceive a group of objects rather than individuals. The term Gestalt means “unified whole” in German, and Gestalt psychology was founded by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka in the 1920s. There are six basic Gestalt principles of visual perception.
- Similarity
- Continuity
- Closure
- Proximity
- Figure-Ground
- Symmetry
1. Similarity
Viewers often consider the individual elements as part of a group when they share visual characteristics such as shape, size, color, or texture. In the Beatles’ album Hard Day’s Night, the 19 pictures have similar shape but the one is anomaly.
2. Continuity
People tend to see a single continuous figure than separated lines if they are aligned with each other. The picture bellow illustrates a Christmas tree by one single line of sharpened pencil. It is hard to accept that they are aggregation of fragmented items.
3. Closure
Closure is the brain’s provision of missing details. This panda, the logo of the World Wildlife Fund, has a face and a body with no edge. We recognize it as a panda by complementing its shape.
4. Proximity
Elements that are close to one another appear to form groups. ‘U’ that stands for Unilever in their logo consists of 25 icons that are discrete. They are not combined, but shape the character as one object.
5. Figure-Ground
It is the perceptual tendency to see an element as either figure or ground. If you get the image of a wolf’s body, other field is covered by snow. If you look at man’s profile, the wolf becomes background.
6. Symmetry
We prefer to balance and order rather than imbalance and disorder. Most of beautiful structures in our history such as Taj Mahal is symmetry. It makes viewers feel harmony, and they can focus on the message or instruction.
