Word:  Gestalt laws of grouping

Definition: A principle taken from psychology  to understand how people naturally observe and perceive object groupings. Gestalt psychologists believe that humans are predisposed into making sense of groupings in logical ways. The principles include perceived patterns like  proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, and common fate.

Reference: Gestalt is a German word roughly meaning "shape", "form", "essence", or "whole". Gestalt thinking gives people a lot of credit and theorizes that the human mind seeks to find structure and order in the world around it.

Take a look at the image below. What shape(s) do you see? Did you say, circles and a triangle? Why did you say that when there is obviously not really a triangle or a full circle present in the image? That, ladies and gentleman, is your mind working to make sense of an unknown grouping by referencing the known and understood. For further reference, the image is utilizing the principle of "closure".

 

Thoughts/Questions: Understanding how people perceive and react to groupings of objects helps designers create layouts that are easily interpreted from user to user.