Gestalt psychology and webdesign

During my presentation at Fronteers I talked about the foundation of the gestalt theory and showed that gestalt psychology is about human perception. Researchers of this phenomenon discovered five principal laws that can be used in modern webdesign.

During the December 2008 meeting of Fronteers I held a talk about gestalt psychology in webdesign. You’ll find the slide for this presentation at the bottom of this post.

December Fronteers meeting

Othe speakers during this evening were:

  • Nikolai Onken (Dojo Core Comitter) about JavaScript libraries and professionalisation of JavaSript.
  • Arjan Westerdiep (Flash guru) about modern use of Flash and Actionscripting, especially his explanation on polygons and 3D we very clear.

Gestalt laws

During my presentation I talked about the foundation of the gestalt theory and showed that gestalt psychology is about human perception. Researchers of this phenomenon discovered five principal laws that can be used in modern webdesign.

Proximity

Law of proximity, which says that objects placed near to one another are distinguished as a group.

Similarity

Law of similarity which explains that objects which have similar properties are grouped.

Closure

Law of closure says that objects which are alltogether surrounded by a border are seen as a group.

Continuity

Law of continuity shows objects placed in a certain row are seen as a group.

Simplicity

Law of simplicity shows that objects are always percieved in their simplest form.

My Colleague Stefan Wobben has written a great article (in Dutch) about this topic in Usabilityweb Magazine some time ago.

5 Replies

  1. Webdesign Q5

    Ziet er interessant uit! Nog nooit zo over nagedacht eigenlijk maar een interessante visie!

  2. Yamil Gonzales

    Thanks, excelent resource 😉

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