The document presents an overview of Gestalt principles and their importance in design, detailing their historical context, contemporary applications, and various properties. It covers key concepts like emergence, reification, and invariance, along with practical design laws such as closure, symmetry, and figure/ground separation. Additionally, it includes a creative exercise for applying these Gestalt principles in design work.

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