Gest... Who? Principles? A brief introduction to Gestalt Most graphic designers, web designers generally artists will have probably heard of the gestalt principles. For those who don't, or those who need a brief and concise reminder, this is for you. The gestalt principles were formed off of gestalt psychology of which wikipedia's definition is trying to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. Simple stuff, right? Well to be frank it's not quite as simple as people would like to think. What are meaningful perceptions and why is it important to understand our ability to acquire it in regards to graphic design and web development? Well, meaningful perceptions are images on a page, and unfortunately some web designers forget the simple principles of gestalt which are praganz(good form) proximity similarity continuation common fate closure figure and ground Berlin university of the 1930s game up with the gestalt principles of human perception, where images that you see, or designed should not be perceived as a culmination of individual elements, but rather a holistic image, a unified whole. Each of the seven principles tries to find a way of putting it into... perspective... Ahem. Jokes aside. Understanding the key factors of creating a unified image will help you in design and will give your users a beautiful creation to look at. Seven principles is a lot to take in but really they're just common sense. In fact they're probably so fundamentally easy to understand and take in that you'll look back on this and think “Man how did I ever get on without knowing this stuff?” you'll be able to spout nonsense to all your friends down the pub and hopefully(I really say hopefully) be able to impress them with your common sense and big words! Anyway... Praganz Praganz is good form, there are a little misconceptions to this on the internet, but it's sceptical, in my opinion this is a pretty good example and it allows figure and ground to be separate in itself. Good form is basically to have an object as simple as possible, but also rather than it being a series of separate shapes, they are perceived as a complete whole. Which is what the gestalt principles are all about, perceived wholes. Every pattern, shape and structure is perceived to be as simple as possible. Beautiful. Elegant. Stylish. "Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away" – Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Proximity Now I don't know about you, but for me the way I first understood proximity was from James Bond Goldeneye on the N64, you'd plant the bomb and if you got too close you'd blow up. Proximity is being close to things, and how that relates to people understanding imagery, is that people will naturally group things that are close together. Simples. Similarity Similarity is that people will see objects that are similar and conclude that they must belong together. You know, you see two kids walking side by side wearing the same cotton knit jumper and you think well they must be siblings. Or you think that it's just a horrific coincidence, but I digress. The reality is that objects on a webpage will be interpreted as being together is if they are similar or the same Continuation The big one in my eyes, it has a lot of interesting conceptions. For one people will naturally follow things that continue on from each other, for instance you see an arrow, people will follow that arrow down, down, down till the end and see where it leads, if it leads no where they get upset and will probably leave your webpage you lying slanderous fool! Continuation is something humans crave, it allows them to not think of where to look, if you've ever heard of Steve Krug and don't make me think, people don't want to think and continuation does that for them. Common Fate Have you ever had one of those days where you're on the tube/train/bus or whatever and there's a person in front or behind that seems to be going to the exact same place as you? Sometimes it's not them or you being a crazy stalker, sometimes it's actually just common fate. Now interestingly people will look at that and maybe determine that you are within the same group, well they would if you're an image on a webpage. People will see things that move together or have similar end/start points and conclude they must be similar or the same. So next time before you start running from this incredibly creepy guy or gal, remember it could just be common fate. Closure This one is incredible, beautiful and kind of mind bending to a degree. Closure is that people will perceive objects that do not have edges as complete. Their mind literally closes the object and creates it's own boundaries. Pretty... Freaking... Amazing. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, look at this photo. Figure and Ground Of all the principles this as more to do with landscape drawings, basically is that people like things to be separated by what's on the foreground and what's on the background. Distinguishing these is pretty vital and gives a great deal of perspective. There are the seven principles of gestalt, and how they are used within webpages is up to you to determine, it's pretty much common sense to put them into practice.

Most graphic designers, web designers generally artists will have probably heard of the gestalt principles. For those who don't, or those who need a brief and concise reminder, this is for you.

The gestalt principles were formed off of gestalt psychology of which wikipedia's definition is trying to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. Simple stuff, right? Well to be frank it's not quite as simple as people would like to think. What are meaningful perceptions and why is it important to understand our ability to acquire it in regards to graphic design and web development?

Well, meaningful perceptions are images on a page, and unfortunately some web designers forget the simple principles of gestalt which are

• praganz(good form)

• proximity

• similarity

• continuation

• common fate

• closure

• figure and ground

Berlin university of the 1930s game up with the gestalt principles of human perception, where images that you see, or designed should not be perceived as a culmination of individual elements, but rather a holistic image, a unified whole. Each of the seven principles tries to find a way of putting it into... perspective... Ahem. Jokes aside. Understanding the key factors of creating a unified image will help you in design and will give your users a beautiful creation to look at.

Seven principles is a lot to take in but really they're just common sense. In fact they're probably so fundamentally easy to understand and take in that you'll look back on this and think “Man how did I ever get on without knowing this stuff?” you'll be able to spout nonsense to all your friends down the pub and hopefully(I really say hopefully) be able to impress them with your common sense and big words!

Anyway...

Praganz

Praganz is good form, there are a little misconceptions to this on the internet, but it's sceptical, in my opinion this is a pretty good example and it allows figure and ground to be separate in itself. Good form is basically to have an object as simple as possible, but also rather than it being a series of separate shapes, they are perceived as a complete whole. Which is what the gestalt principles are all about, perceived wholes. Every pattern, shape and structure is perceived to be as simple as possible. Beautiful. Elegant. Stylish.

"Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away" – Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Proximity

Now I don't know about you, but for me the way I first understood proximity was from James Bond Goldeneye on the N64, you'd plant the bomb and if you got too close you'd blow up. Proximity is being close to things, and how that relates to people understanding imagery, is that people will naturally group things that are close together. Simples.

Similarity

Similarity is that people will see objects that are similar and conclude that they must belong together. You know, you see two kids walking side by side wearing the same cotton knit jumper and you think well they must be siblings. Or you think that it's just a horrific coincidence, but I digress. The reality is that objects on a webpage will be interpreted as being together is if they are similar or the same

Continuation

The big one in my eyes, it has a lot of interesting conceptions. For one people will naturally follow things that continue on from each other, for instance you see an arrow, people will follow that arrow down, down, down till the end and see where it leads, if it leads no where they get upset and will probably leave your webpage you lying slanderous fool! Continuation is something humans crave, it allows them to not think of where to look, if you've ever heard of Steve Krug and don't make me think, people don't want to think and continuation does that for them.

Common Fate

Have you ever had one of those days where you're on the tube/train/bus or whatever and there's a person in front or behind that seems to be going to the exact same place as you? Sometimes it's not them or you being a crazy stalker, sometimes it's actually just common fate. Now interestingly people will look at that and maybe determine that you are within the same group, well they would if you're an image on a webpage. People will see things that move together or have similar end/start points and conclude they must be similar or the same. So next time before you start running from this incredibly creepy guy or gal, remember it could just be common fate.

Closure

This one is incredible, beautiful and kind of mind bending to a degree. Closure is that people will perceive objects that do not have edges as complete. Their mind literally closes the object and creates it's own boundaries. Pretty... Freaking... Amazing. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, look at this photo.

Figure and Ground

Of all the principles this as more to do with landscape drawings, basically is that people like things to be separated by what's on the foreground and what's on the background. Distinguishing these is pretty vital and gives a great deal of perspective.

There are the seven principles of gestalt, and how they are used within webpages is up to you to determine, it's pretty much common sense to put them into practice.