Elements sharing similar visual characteristics are perceived to be more related than those not sharing similar characteristics.
In UI design, we tend to perceive similar to each other elements as grouped or a pattern. We also might think that they serve the same purpose. Similarity can help us with organizing and classifying objects within a group and linking them with a specific meaning or function.

Similarity

Elements following a continuous line are perceived as grouped. The smoother the line segments, the more we see them as a unified shape; our mind prefers the path of least resistance.

Continuity helps us interpret direction and movement through a composition. Disruption of continuity can signal the end of a section drawing attention to a new piece of content.

Continuity (o Good Continuation)

A group of elements are often perceived to be a single recognizable form or figure. The Closure also occurs when an object is incomplete, or parts of it are not enclosed. When presented with the right amount of information, our brain will jump to conclusions by filling in the gaps and creating a unified whole. 

We perceive elements as one object rather than separate parts. Closure can help us minimize visual noise and convey a message, reinforcing a concept within a pretty small space. Closure could be used in icon design, where simplicity helps with communicating meaning clearly and swiftly.

Closure

Symmetrical elements tend to perceived as belonging together regardless of their distance, giving us a feeling of solidity and order.

Symmtery

Elements moving towards the same direction are perceived as more related than those moving in different directions, or not moving at all.

Common Fate

The figure-ground relationship is a Gestalt principle describing our tendency to separate our visual world into two distinct planes: the 'figure,' which is the primary object or person of focus, and the 'ground,' which constitutes the background. How we perceive a scene can change dramatically based on which elements we interpret as the figure and which as the ground.

Figure-Ground Relationship

The principle of proximity is a Gestalt principle for organizing sensory stimuli which asserts that things that are close to one another tend to be grouped together. Because of this principle, elements arranged near each other are perceived as more related than those placed further apart, and are viewed as a group rather than as individual elements.

Principle of Proximity

A graphic designer creates a poster for a music festival. The poster lists three headlining bands at the top, followed by a list of twenty supporting acts below. The three headliners are written in a large, bold, colorful font. The twenty supporting acts are all listed in a smaller, plain, white font. Which two principles of perceptual organization best explain why an observer would immediately see the headliners as a distinct and more important group than the supporting acts?

Gestalt principles are laws of human perception that describe how we group similar elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images when we perceive objects. These principles include Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, Closure, Symmetry, Figure/Ground, and Common Fate. Understanding these concepts can be enhanced by observing them in real-world examples.

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New Mexico Highlands University

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Columbia University

Covers the design and use of computer technology. It focuses on the interfaces between people and computers and observes how people interact with them. Contributing disciplines include computer science, behavioral sciences, design, and media studies.

Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

The designing of interactive products, environments, systems, and services. Common topics include design, human–computer interaction, and software development. A central concern of interaction design is to develop interactive products that are usable, easy to learn, effective to use, and provide an enjoyable user experience to support and enhance the way people communicate and interact in their everyday lives.  Dan Saffer (2010) suggests four main approaches to interaction design, User-centered design, Activity-centered design, Systems design, and Genius design.

Interaction design

Gestalt psychology is a school of thought based on the core principle that the whole is different from the sum of its parts. The term 'gestalt' translates to 'form' or 'pattern,' reflecting the idea that the brain does not merely combine individual sensory stimuli but actively creates a holistic perception. This process of organizing sensory information into a meaningful whole occurs in predictable ways, which Gestalt psychologists formulated into a set of principles.

Gestalt Psychology

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

- texSketch: Active Diagramming through Pen-and-Ink Annotations
- Human Computer Interaction on Wikipedia
- Technology use, self-directed learning, student engagement and academic performance: Examining the interrelations
- Data Visualization on Wikipedia

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) References

The movement is inescapable in human-computer interaction (HCI). This is an important concept for user interaction with devices. Motor movements include: Typing, Pointing, Clicking, Dragging, Drawing, Pinching 

Motor Behavior

Our brain takes an information and makes an initial sense through sensory register and perception. Making sense it focuses on certain things through attention and takes into account past experiences from working a long term memory, in order to make decision and act on the world.

Wicken's Human Information Processing Model

Experiments have always played an important role in Human-Computer Interaction.

Experimental Methods in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

Gestalt Principles

Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem-solving through the use of typography, photography, iconography and illustration. The field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design, but sometimes the term "graphic design" is used synonymously. Graphic designers use typography, visual arts, and page layout techniques to create visual compositions. Common applications of graphic design include corporate design (logos and branding), editorial design (magazines, newspapers and books), wayfinding or environmental design, advertising, web design, communication design, product packaging, and signage.

Graphic Design

Similar in structure to causal diagrams (i.e. nodes with connections), except the connections are not causal. Nodes contain concepts are organized
in a hierarchy (such as in 1Cademy's knowledge graph).

Concept Mapping

1. To synthesize a solution from all of the relevant constraints,
understanding everything that will make a difference to the
result
2. To frame, or reframe, the problem and objective
3. To create and envision alternatives
4. To select from those alternatives, knowing intuitively how to
choose the best approach
5. To visualize and prototype the intended solution

Bill Moggridge book - "Designing Interactions" - chapter 10

Core Skills of Design

Design Disciplines

A narrow definition
of interaction design is:
“The design of the subjective
and qualitative aspects of
everything that is both digital
and interactive.”

A broad definition
of interaction design is:
‘The design of everything that is
both digital and interactive.”


Narrow & Broad Definition of Interaction Design

Don Norman is the director of the newly established (2014) Design Lab at the University of California, Co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group and Honorary Professor at Tongji University (Shanghai) in their College of Design and Innovation. The term user-centered design came from him in his book The Design of Everyday Things (1988). It marked a shift from the previous term “user centered system design” where instead of focusing on the system itself and the aesthetics of the interface, Norman concentrated on user needs.

Don Norman

Process of solving a product design problem: 
1. Understand your goal (Why) 
2. Define the audience (Who) 
3. Understand customer’s context (When/Where) and needs 
4. List ideas (What) 
5. Prioritize and choose an idea 
6. Solve 
7. Measure success (How)

5W+1H

Design thinking is a process that works to solve problems in a user-centric way. It has a strong focus on users and humans, to ensure that solutions meet their needs.



Steps to design thinking:

1. Empathize: Understand your users

2. Define: Clearly define the problem and their needs

3. Ideate: Brainstorm potential solutions, create ideas

4. Prototype: Build your solutions

5. Test: Test out your solutions

Design Thinking

I feel that this statement, "Dan Saffer (2010) suggests four main approaches to interaction design, User-centered design, Activity-centered design, Systems design, and Genius design." should be linked as a child node rather than grouped together into this. There is a lot of content in this node and could be made more clear by breaking it down further into more granular content

re-structure nodes

In software development and computer science, ubiquitous computing refer to the idea of computing could be and is made to appear anytime and everywhere. Reflecting to Interaction design and User Experience Design, the term is refer to the idea that user interaction could be in many forms, from laptop computers, phones to everyday objects such as lamps and glasses.

Ubiquitous Computing

Important questions to consider when designing for interaction include the following:

- Defining how the user interacts with the interface: What does the user do with their finger, stylus, keyboard, or mouse to interact with the interface?

- Giving users clues about behaviors before actions are taken: What does the appearance (color, shape, size, animation, etc) of an element or system tell the user about what happens when an action is performed?

- Anticipating and mitigating errors: What kind of constraints are put in place to prevent errors? In the case of an error, what kind of error messages are provided for the user to correct the problem?

- Considering system feedback and response time: How long does it take between an action being performed (for example: clicking a button) and the product responding? What kind of feedback is given to the user once the action is performed?

- Strategically thinking about each element: Are you following standards? (Fitt's law, metaphors, having an understanding of how elements function)

- Simplifying for learnability: Is the format as simplified as possible for the users? (This includes decluttering, number of choices, removing complexity, using familiar user flow patterns)

Questions to consider when Designing for Interaction

- Activity-Centered Design
- Inclusive Design
- Ethical Design
- Industrial Design
- Designing for Autistic People
- Product Design
- Emotional Design
- Systems Design
- Genius Design

Types of Designs

- Storytelling
- Prototype
- Concept Mapping
- Visual Direction


Elements of Design

- Motor Behavior 
- Feature Detection (Ware)
- Common Ground
- Extrema 
- IDEO Methods Cards
- Observation 

Design Techniques 

Gestalt psychology shows how humans tend to look for patterns when interacting with the world.

What Gestalt Psychology Reveals

Pattern perception is our ability to discriminate among different figures and shapes. According to Gestalt theorists, this process occurs by following established principles of perceptual organization.

Pattern Perception

An example illustrating Gestalt principles is the perception of a song. A song consists of individual notes played by various instruments. However, a listener perceives the song not as a collection of separate notes, but as a cohesive whole, experiencing the melody, rhythm, and harmony that emerge from the combination of these notes.

Gestalt Psychology: Song Example

The perspective of Gestalt psychology stands in direct opposition to Wundt's structuralism. While structuralism sought to understand consciousness by breaking down sensory experiences into their most basic individual components, Gestalt psychology argued that perception is focused on the whole, emphasizing that the way individual parts combine and relate to each other is the essence of experience.

Comparison of Gestalt Psychology and Structuralism

The influence of Gestalt psychology in the United States was significantly curtailed compared to its prominence in Germany. This was due to the professional hardships its founders faced after immigrating, which prevented large-scale research, as well as the simultaneous rise of behaviorism as the dominant psychological perspective in the U.S.

Factors Limiting the Influence of Gestalt Psychology in the U.S.

The Gestalt concept of treating an individual as an integrated whole, rather than a mere collection of separate measurable components, provided a critical philosophical foundation for the subsequent development of humanistic theory.

Influence of Gestalt Psychology on Humanistic Theory

Despite facing initial setbacks in the United States, the core ideas of Gestalt psychology have proven to have an enduring influence, continuing to shape and inform modern research in the fields of sensation and perception.

Lasting Impact of Gestalt Psychology on Sensation and Perception

The duck-rabbit illusion is a classic ambiguous drawing that can be perceived in two distinct ways: either as the head of a duck facing to the left or as the head of a rabbit facing to the right. This phenomenon illustrates that our perception of the world is complex and can be influenced by where we focus our attention, rather than just being a simple sum of all sensory information.

Duck-Rabbit Illusion

This phrase is the central tenet of Gestalt psychology. It posits that the human brain creates a perception, or 'gestalt,' that is more than just the sum of the available sensory inputs. Instead of processing individual components in isolation, the mind organizes them into a meaningful and unified whole, following predictable principles.

The Whole is Different from the Sum of its Parts

The Gestalt psychology movement was initiated in the early 20th century by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka. The core idea originated from Wertheimer's observation that rapidly flickering static images could produce the illusion of motion, leading to the belief that perception involves more than just combining sensory stimuli. These three German psychologists are also credited with introducing Gestalt principles to the United States after fleeing Nazi Germany, although their influence was initially limited by professional hardships that hindered large-scale research.

Founders and Origin of Gestalt Psychology

A perceptual hypothesis is an educated guess that an individual makes while interpreting sensory information. These hypotheses serve as the foundation for our perceptions and are informed by various factors, including a person's personality, experiences, and expectations.

Perceptual Hypothesis

Influential within the study of sensation and perception, Gestalt principles explain how humans naturally organize sensory stimuli into meaningful patterns. These principles, which include the figure-ground relationship, grouping by proximity or similarity, the law of good continuation, and closure, describe the innate tendencies of the brain to perceive wholes rather than just collections of individual parts.

Gestalt Principles of Perceptual Organization

While walking through a park, you observe a flock of birds. Some are sparrows and some are pigeons. You instinctively perceive the sparrows as one group and the pigeons as another, even though they are all mixed together and flying in the same general direction. Which principle of perceptual organization best explains this experience?

The fundamental principle of Gestalt psychology is its holistic approach, which emphasizes understanding an individual and their experiences as a complete and integrated whole rather than as a collection of separate parts.

Holistic Approach of Gestalt Psychology

Originating in Europe, Gestalt psychology became a highly influential school of thought within the continent's psychological community before its key proponents were forced to immigrate to the United States.

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