User Experience is … using Gestalt theory to improve the experience

There will always be a need to familiarise users with new technology and devices and Skeuomorphism is a great way to do that.

In my first story ‘User Experience is …’ I promised that …

"over the course of a few stories, I’ll try and cover a few of the sciences we draw upon in our art as a creative community to create engaging experiences."

And in a previous story I talked around the similar field of how User Experience is … Psychology. But this time out I’m zoning in on one specific psychology theory of Gestalt and how we can use it when designing to improve the User Experience.

Recently within a design team we saw the need to look at Gestalt theory in detail in order to look at how people typically group objects of a similar nature, through recognising patterns and simplifying complex objects down into more simple sections.

Although the theory wasn’t new the name was, so I thought I’d look and provide some more details about it.

Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a type of psychology that came out of Austria and Germany in the early twentieth century. The German word gestalt means “form” and is interpreted as “pattern” or “configuration”. Gestalt psychologists emphasised that organisms perceive entire patterns or configurations, not merely individual components. Popularly summed up in the phase, “the whole being more than the sum of its parts.”

Principals within Gestalt’s theory

Wertheimer defined a few principles that explain the ways humans perceive objects. Those principles were based on similarity, proximity, continuity

There are six core individual principals at play within Gestalt’s theory.

Figure-Ground: Disliking uncertainty, we look for solid, stable items. Unless an image is truly ambiguous, its foreground catches the eye first.
Invariance is where we seek differences and similarities in an image and link similar elements. It’s the property of perception whereby simple geometrical objects can be recognised even if they’re rotated, translated, scaled, or a mixture of these.
Multistability is the tendency for ambiguous perceptual images to pop back and forth unstably between two or more alternative interpretations. Which causes your brain to switch between a couple of objects within a single image.
Prägnanz is the fundamental principle of perceptual grouping. The law of Prägnanz is also known as the law of good Gestalt. Prägnanz is a German word that directly translates to “pithiness” and implies salience, conciseness, and orderliness. This describes our need to seek balance and order in designs, struggling to do so if they aren’t readily apparent we perceive complex or ambiguous images as simple ones.

Gestalt’s laws

Gestalt psychologists later refined the law of Prägnanz, by refining this into 7 further laws that, allow us to predict the interpretation of sensation, what are often called “gestalt laws”.

Law of closure or Reification describes how we complete shapes, so automatically fill in gaps between elements to perceive other objects in order for us to complete image. So, we might see the whole first and then other objects within the image. This is the constructive aspect of our perception, which leads us to create objects in negative space. Reification can be explained by illusory contours or visual illusions. Negative space has long been a staple of good design. For example the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo.
Law of Common Fate states that objects are perceived as lines that move along the smoothest path. We perceive elements of objects to have trends of motion, which indicate the path that the object is on. The law of continuity implies the grouping together of objects that have the same trend of motion and are therefore on the same path. It describes how we group elements that move in the same direction.
Law of Continuity (also known as the law of good continuation) states that elements of objects tend to be grouped together, and therefore integrated into perceptual wholes if they are aligned within an object. In cases where there is an intersection between objects, individuals tend to perceive the two objects as two single uninterrupted entities. Stimuli remain distinct even with overlap. We are less likely to group elements with sharp abrupt directional changes as being one object. It describes how we favour to follow and “flow with” lines, rather than change direction.
Law of Proximity describes how close elements are to one another and we group closer-together elements, separating them from those farther apart. The strongest proximity relationships are those between overlapping subjects, but just grouping objects into a single area can also have a strong proximity effect. The opposite is also true, of course. By putting space between elements, you can add separation even when their other characteristics are the same.
Law of similarity states that elements within an assortment of objects are perceptually grouped together if they are similar to each other. This similarity can occur in the form of shape, colour, shading or other qualities. For example, the figure illustrating the law of similarity portrays 36 circles all equal distance apart from one another forming a square. In this depiction, 18 of the circles are shaded dark, and 18 of the circles are shaded light. We perceive the dark circles as grouped together and the light circles as grouped together, forming six horizontal lines within the square of circles. This perception of lines is due to the law of similarity
Law of symmetry states that the mind perceives objects as being symmetrical and forming around a center point. It is perceptually pleasing to divide objects into an even number of symmetrical parts. Therefore, when two symmetrical elements are unconnected the mind perceptually connects them to form a coherent shape. Similarities between symmetrical objects increase the likelihood that objects are grouped to form a combined symmetrical object. For example, the figure depicting the law of symmetry shows a configuration of square and curled brackets. When the image is perceived, we tend to observe three pairs of symmetrical brackets rather than six individual bracket
Law of Past Experience implies that under some circumstances visual stimuli are categorised according to past experience. If two objects tend to be observed within close proximity, or small temporal intervals, the objects are more likely to be perceived together. For example, the English language contains 26 letters that are grouped to form words using a set of rules. If an individual reads an English word they have never seen, they use the law of past experience to interpret the letters “L” and “I” as two letters beside each other, rather than using the law of closure to combine the letters and interpret the object as an uppercase U

Gestalt principles are in the mind, not the eye

In the simplest terms, gestalt theory is based on the idea that the human brain will attempt to simplify and organise complex images or designs that consist of many elements, by subconsciously arranging the parts into an organised system that creates a whole, rather than just a series of disparate elements. Our brains are built to see structure and patterns in order for us to better understand the environment that we’re living in.

The Gestalt principles are pivotal in UX design, as it influences how people perceive and understand what they see — and find what they want — at a glance. A good example are the principles of proximity and common region.

For designers, the true trick of Gestalt never to confuse or delay users, but to guide them to identify their options and identify with organisations and brands rapidly. Through understanding the principals and laws within Gestalt and not working against or avoiding areas where our brains might try to simplify or organise.

Designers must appreciate how the mind works and where it struggles to work to avoid causing confusion unknowingly.

The human brain is exceptionally good at filling in the blanks in an image and creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s why we see faces in things like tree leaves, toasts and cracks.