Gestalt Principles. How psychology influences your design strategy.

[Music] to become a good designer you need to understand and use the power of psychology in visual perception how does someone react to your design when sees it how does his mind interpret it Gestalt is a psychology movement that helps us understand and predict these interpretations our brain tries very hard to find sounds and visual images that's why it looks for familiar clues in the mental visual library it sifts through millions of image impressions until it finds an explanation of what you see you've got a very powerful computer there in your head back in nineteen twenties here Stoll psychologist max Wertheimer Wolfgang köhler and Kurt Kafka came to conclusion the sum of the whole is greater than its parts that means we see the whole picture before we see details according to Gestalt psychology there are five basic principles of visual perception similarity proximity continuity closure figure and ground according to the principle of similarity we visually group similar elements that would be the elements that share similar characteristics like value size shape texture color orientation using them as a group and separate them from other elements [Music] use this principle if you for example want to emphasize an element just make it different and everyone will focus on it [Music] when we see elements that are randomly spaced out we see them as separate objects once they get closer we see them as a group of friends we visually group objects that are close elements that are closer together as seen as belonging together you can emphasize an element just by spacing it away we move our eyes from one object to another as we would follow a path well until it's interrupted your eye naturally follows a line affair a group of shapes or even a lack of your brain likes simplicity so it always picks the smoothest paths these two not those you can emphasize an element by having other elements point to it which makes sense the principle of closure states that we visually finish incomplete shapes that means we tend to see the whole shape even when part of the information is missing if what we see only suggests explanation you I will fill in the gaps how many shapes do you see your first reaction and the natural one is probably for three black circles covered by a white triangle seeing these four shapes is the simplest interpretation of what you see not the three circles would cut out slices our brain likes simple solutions our brain separates a foreground from a background on a flat surface we see an object figure against its surrounding ground it is also called positive negative space relationship same shapes can be seen as a foreground or a background [Music] a color or a tonal value of an element have nothing to do with determining whether it's a figure or a ground its own the context you can create an interest in your design by working on negative space instead of the object itself or even combining both science did not stay still since nineteen twenties other principles of perception were identified here are just a couple simplicity people intuitively prefer the simplest solutions possible what shapes do you see here one disk into partial disks all three overlapping disks your first impression was probably the three overlapping disks because it's the simplest interpretation of what you see simplicity of the whole emphasizes the importance of details keep it simple to focus on what really matters elegant design requires minimum number of steps you take to convey a message a great deal may be happening on the page with very few graphics in fact adding more elements without understanding their effect can often make the message confusing so don't overdo your designs less is more familiarity it causes a shape to stand out from its surroundings we tend to see familiar objects first in this display of random shapes and lines which element caught your eye first I bet it was the a as we focus on it it becomes a figure while the rest of the elements become background [Music] similarity proximity continuty closure figuring ground when Gestalt principles are ignored designed tends to look unprofessional and sounds confusing messages we don't want that do we so bring the power of psychology to a design work [Music]

Channel: Art with Kunstler

Views: 107,850

Keywords: gestalt, visual perception, similarity, proximity, continuity, closure, figure, ground, simplicity, familiarity

Id: G-xD1bDoNl4

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2020