What is Gestalt Principles?
These are a set of psychological principles that describe how humans perceive and interpret visual stimuli. These principles, including closure, proximity, similarity, continuity, symmetry, figure-ground, common fate, and Prägnanz, explain how the mind organizes visual elements into cohesive wholes, influencing the way individuals perceive and make sense of the visual world. Applied in design and visual communication, these principles enhance the effectiveness and clarity of visual compositions by leveraging innate perceptual tendencies.
Gestalt Principles – Similarity
Although all the shapes are identical, each row clearly represents a different group based on its title.
Firstly, this principle is used to differentiate sections; viewers can immediately distinguish that the dark black section at the top is separate from the grey-black section below.
Secondly, the color red highlights the 'Movie thumbnail with small N,' signaling that all red text serves a common function.
Gestalt Principles – Continuity
This principle pertains to elements that are aligned along a continuous line or path, suggesting to users that they can easily navigate through them, often with a single click. Netflix utilizes the Gestalt Principle of continuity to visually indicate that the items displayed in rows are connected and share a common relationship, encouraging users to explore these related items seamlessly.
Gestalt Principles – Closure
The Gestalt Principle of closure implies that when we observe a collection of varied visual elements, our brain instinctively interprets them as a cohesive whole. In essence, when we encounter an object or pattern with missing components, our mind automatically fills in the gaps to perceive a complete image, allowing us to recognize it as a coherent and meaningful pattern.
This principle is evident in the logo designs of well-known companies, where incomplete shapes still form recognizable symbols. In user interfaces, bold text such as "HOME" clearly indicates the user's current location within the interface. Additionally, progress indicators below each piece of content show how much of a film has been watched and how much remains, leveraging closure to provide a quick visual summary.
Gestalt Principles – Focal point
The focal point principle asserts that any visually distinct element will naturally draw the viewer's attention first, such as the notification icon. This element acts as the primary focus, capturing the user's gaze, and subsequently guiding it to other parts of the interface. By drawing attention to the notification icon, users are prompted to check for new updates before exploring other sections. Additionally, phrases like "Popular on Netflix" and "Trending Now" are strategically used to create a sense of urgency and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), highlighting what others are watching and encouraging users to engage with that content as well.
Gestalt Principles – Common Region
The Gestalt Principle of the common region is closely related to the Principle of proximity, suggesting that when objects are placed within the same defined area, we naturally perceive them as part of a single group. However, if a clear boundary or enclosure is drawn around specific items, these items are perceived as separate from others outside that boundary. This principle is demonstrated in the use of negative space, such as the gap between the top menu and the remaining content. Similarly, the space between two distinct sections, each with a bold title and negative space, reinforces the separation and distinguishes one group from another.
Gestalt Principles – Similarity
The gestalt principle of similarity says that elements that are similar are perceived to be more related than elements that are dissimilar. Similarity helps us organize objects by their relatedness to other objects within a group and can be affected by the attributes of color, size, shape, and orientation. Here all the content is in the same size following the consistency and all content-id gets equal priority.
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