Gestalt Theory in Visual Screen Design

Principle 1:

Using Gestalt Theory in the visual design will help your interface users understand and explore your online learning resource.

After reading the literature on Gestalt Theory, the researchers distilled its various elements into eleven main principles. These Gestalt principles reflect how the mind organises images and finds patterns among groups of images or within images in order to find meaning, understanding, or balance. Examples of these principles are 'Grouping', 'Similarity' and 'Flow'. When the researchers used all of their eleven identified principles in the re-design of an educational website, the feedback in terms of design satisfaction was positive. By providing an interface that is pleasing to a mind's perception, motivation to engage with the site is increased. When combined with sound pedagogical principles, the 'Gestalt Approach' is likely to lead to better learning outcomes.

Principle 2:

Not all Gestalt principles are as beneficial as others.

While the researchers' results indicated that all respondents identified the use of the eleven Gestalt principles to provide learning benefit, there were differences in the strength of the accolades. In particular, the principle of 'figure-ground' was less effective than others, such as 'continuity', or 'symmetry'. The research does not make it clear whether this is due to the effectiveness of the 'figure-ground' principle itself (in improving learning outcome); it is possible it wasn't able to be incorporated as strongly as other principles, and so its effect was weaker. Further research needs to be done on Gestalt principles in relation to visual design of web-based learning systems, both in regards to the principles themselves and how they can be applied to different fields and types of instruction.

Reference:
Chang, D., Dooley, L. & Tuovinen, J. E. (2002). Gestalt theory in visual screen design: a new look at an old subject. Paper presented at the 7th World Conference on Computers in Education.