Gestalt's principles of Form Perception

Gestalt is a German word literally meaning shape or form. Gestalt theory is a theory of mind and brain. Gestalt psychology (also Gestalt theory of the Berlin School) is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. The classic Gestalt example is a soap bubble, whose spherical shape (its Gestalt) is not defined by a rigid template, or a mathematical formula, but rather it emerges spontaneously by the parallel action of surface tension acting at all points in the surface simultaneously. This is in contrast to the "atomistic" principle of operation of the digital computer, where every computation is broken down into a sequence of simple steps, each of which is computed independently of the problem as a whole. The Gestalt effect refers to the form-forming capability of our senses, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of figures and whole forms instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves. The key laws of gestalt's theory are: 1. Law of proximity 2. Law of similarity 3. Law of Prägnanz(figure-ground) 4. Law of symmetry 5. Law of closure The following links depict in more detail on some of these laws with perfect examples for each law. Gestalt's theory is one basic interaction design principle that should be followed while designing the UI. http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/gestalt_principles_of_form_perception.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology