Guide to the Gestalt Principles: Role of Gestalt Laws in Design

The Gestalt principles, or Gestalt laws, are a school of thought that attempts to explain how human perception processes visual elements. These laws are based on theoretical concepts from Gestalt psychology, developed by a group of German psychologists, including Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler, in the early twentieth century. Gestalt theory suggests that when the human eye observes complex images composed of individual elements against a background in any given scene, the human brain will attempt to organize them into a structured system that sees the objects as a whole. “Gestalt” is a German word that translates to “unified whole.”

Regarding visual perception, the school of thought is anchored by a principle called the law of prägnanz, which suggests that for humans, the “whole is more than the sum of its parts.” When we see different shapes in a scene, our brains naturally gravitate towards the simplest form of perceptual organization, which arranges the objects into connected groups that form a whole. This process is known as perceptual grouping.

The Gestalt laws have many different applications, from neurology to certain schools of psychology, like social psychology, and serve as guidelines for many forms of visual design.

There are nine primary principles of gestalt:

1. 1. The law of closure: Closure, or reification, suggests that visual elements can be grouped if they are part of a closed figure. If we see an incomplete image—an image with a missing element or one suggested by dotted lines—our minds will perceive the incomplete image as a whole, rather than one composed of complete and broken lines. Perceiving the whole figure despite changes, like lack of closure, is called invariance.
2. 2. The law of common region: This law suggests that we will group elements in a closed region or boundary. These elements will be perceived in our minds as part of a common group and separate from other elements in different closed regions or elsewhere in the space.
3. 3. The law of continuation. Also known as the principle of continuity, law of continuity, or good continuation, this law suggests that our minds will see elements in a group as a whole if they are aligned with each other in some manner. If the elements cross paths, we will see the objects as two whole objects rather than two broken ones, even if there’s overlap.
4. 4. The law of common fate: Common fate was not included among the original principles of Gestalt but has since been accepted as one of its laws. Simply put, common fate suggests that objects that are oriented or appear to be traveling in the same direction are perceived as part of a group. For example, when cars are driving in the same direction on the freeway, the human eye perceives them to be traveling in a group.
5. 5. The law of figure-ground: The Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin helped establish the figure-ground principle, or multistability, which observes two objects and perceives them from a three-dimensional perspective, with one object (usually the larger of the two) regarded as the background, or negative space, and the smaller as the foreground. It’s best illustrated by Rubin’s vase, which shows two distinct images—a pair of faces and a vase—in the same 3D space.
6. 6. The law of focal point: When considering a group of objects, the object that immediately draws our attention away from all the others is considered the focal point.
7. 7. The law of proximity: In the principle of proximity, objects are grouped according to how close or far away they are from other objects. The human eye perceives them as groups without any concrete borders.
8. 8. The law of similarity: The principle of similarity suggests that we will group objects within a collection that share similar aspects, such as color or shape. We can even group an array of identically shaped objects if there are recurring similarities within the array, such as multiple red and green objects.
9. 9. The law of symmetry: When we are presented with ambiguous shapes, such as a shape that combines elements of a circle, square, and triangle, the human mind will perceive them in the simplest form possible: separate symmetrical objects, rather than a new form made from individual parts.

Gestalt principles play a primary role in many forms of design. They help designers organize images to provide an aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-use presentation and transmit a message that immediately attracts the user’s attention. Gestalt principles are particularly useful with user interface design and user experience design.

The laws of proximity and similarity can help a designer with interaction design elements: understanding how users perceive interactive elements, like buttons or pulldown menus, will aid in the best possible placement within the field. The figure-ground principle can assist with logo design: using white space to suggest an unseen image can give depth and complexity to a logo.

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