Gestalt Theory is a key ingredient to designing successful products and creating effective, visually pleasing designs. NotProf. Lucas William Glenn BFA/MIB walks you through laws of human perception common to us all, and how to design for those laws. Designed originally as a Lunch & Learn for his coworkers at FreshGrade.

1. Gestalt Principles
And why they’re important for real good great quality design
Presented by NotProf. Lucas Glenn, BFA MiB
Ch. 1 – Brief History
Ch. 2 – Today
Ch. 3 – Properties
Ch. 4 – Applied Properties
Ch. 5 – Gestalt Laws & Design
Ch. 6 – Creative Exercise

2. Chapter 1
The History of
Gestalt Theory
❖ 1890, Berlin School of Experimental Psychology
❖ Theory of mind: A gestalt is an organized whole that is
perceived as more than the whole of its parts
❖ Credits: David Hume, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Immanuel Kant, David Hartley, and Ernst Mach
❖ Refined by Max Wertheimer, 1893
❖ Mid 20th C. Cybernetics and Neurology

3. Chapter 2
Gestalt Theory Today
❖ Principles
Used in:
❖ Perceptual Psychology
❖ Cybernetics and neuroscience
❖ Graphic Design, Visual Art
❖ HCI – UI Design, Usability Engineering
❖ Political Economics

4. Gestalt Properties
❖ Our tendency to recognize a full form from
individual parts
Chapter 3
Emergence

5. Gestalt Properties
❖ There is more that can be perceived than what’s actually
there
Chapter 3
Reification

6. Gestalt Properties
❖ Two perceptions popping back and forth
Chapter 3
Multistability

7. Gestalt Properties
❖ Flexible form recognition
Chapter 3
Invariance

8. A
B
C
D
Gestalt Properties: Design Use
Chapter 4
❖ Critical to the way a user or viewer perceives a design
❖ Things to avoid, and things to apply
❖ Some examples:
A. Emergence – Our mind sees the whole before the parts
B. Reification – Our mind fills in the Gaps
C. Multi-Stability – Our mind seeks to avoid uncertainty
D. Invariance – Our mind is good at noticing similarities
and differences

9. Gestalt Laws & Design Use
Chapter 5
❖ Fundamental principle
❖ Perceiving ambiguity and complexity as simple
Pragnanz (Good Figure,
Law of Simplicity)

10. Chapter 5
❖ Closure is our minds combining multiple parts to form
a unified whole
Laws of Grouping:
Closure
Gestalt Laws & Design Use

12. Gestalt Laws & Design Use
Chapter 5
❖ Symmetry is our tendency to see objects as symmetrical
shapes
Laws of Grouping:
Symmetry and Order

14. Chapter 5
❖ Our minds separate shapes into figure and ground
Laws of Grouping:
Figure/Ground
Gestalt Laws & Design Use

16. Chapter 5
❖ Visual connections between elements make us perceive
them as related.
Laws of Grouping:
Uniform Connectedness
Gestalt Laws & Design Use

18. Chapter 5
❖ Things look like groups if they within the same close
region
Laws of Grouping:
Common Regions
Gestalt Laws & Design Use
A STRIPmall in Florida
My mom’s friend
China
Good times
Cats
John Stamos
Anger

20. Chapter 5
❖ Close things look like they’re more related
Laws of Grouping:
Proximity
Gestalt Laws & Design Use
Cats
Zebras
Plants
More cats

22. Chapter 5
❖ Elements on a line or curve appear related
Laws of Grouping:
Continuation
Gestalt Laws & Design Use

24. Chapter 5
❖ Things that move in the same direction are perceived as
as related
Laws of Grouping:
Common Fate
Gestalt Laws & Design Use

26. Chapter 5
❖ Things that share characteristics are perceived as related
Laws of Grouping:
Similarity
Gestalt Laws & Design Use

28. Chapter 5
❖ Things are perceived according to a user’s past
experience
Laws of Grouping:
Past Experiences
Gestalt Laws & Design Use

29. Bibliography
❖ The designer's guide to Gestalt Theory, Creative Bloq, 2015
❖ Design Principles: Visual Perception and the Principles of Gestalt, Smashing Magazine,
Steven Bradley, 2014
❖ Gestalt Psychology, Wikipedia, 2016
❖ Gestalt principles of form perception, Mads Soegaard, Interaction Design Foundation,
2015
❖ Cognitive psychology for UX: 7 Gestalt principles of visual perception, User Testing Blog,
Spencer Lanoue, 2016
❖ Gestalt Principles of Perception, Andy Rutledge, 2009

30. – Lucas Glenn
“It’s time for a creative exercise”

31. Creative Exercise
Illustrate three total examples of any
of the Gestalt Laws we went over.
At the end I’ll gather them and put them into a Learning
Slideshow to be later shared on @general
❖ Pragnanz
❖ Closure
❖ Symmetry & Order
❖ Figure/Ground
❖ Uniform Connectedness
❖ Common Region
❖ Proximity
❖ Continuation
❖ Common Fate
❖ Similarity
❖ Past Experiences

32. Thanks for your participation