Visual Perception

Visual Perception
 Perception refers to how information is acquired
from the environment via the different sense
organs – eyes, ears, fingers.
 Eye is the main input channel for a person with
normal eye sight.
 The eyes (often) show where the attention is.
 Visual perception refers to the brain’s ability to
make sense of what the eyes sees.

Gestalt Laws
 Gestal is a German word that roughly means
“shape”, “form”, or “whole”
 The Gestalt Laws of Perception helps us to
explain how the human eye perceives objects
or visual elements.
 As user interface designers, the laws are
interesting to us because they can help us
better communicate concepts and
relationships that exist in our underlying
conceptual model for the application.

Gestalt Principle
 According to Gestalt principle when we are
presented with a complex visual image, our
brain recognize coherent, whole forms,
rather than individually perceiving all of the
smaller constituent parts that make up the
image.
 The whole is other than the sum of parts.
 Gestalt principles play an important role in
making interfaces usable and easy to
understand.

Gestalt Principles
 Figure-Ground
 Similarity
 Proximity
 Common Fate
 Closure
 Focal Point
 Symmetry

Figure - Ground
 “Elements are perceived as either figure (the
element in focus) or ground (the background
on which the figure rests).”
 We have to determine which elements are
figures (requiring immediate concern and
attention) and which are ground (not so
important right now, but do provide
context)

Figure - Ground
 In short it allows us to determine what we’re
supposed to look at and what we might safely
ignore.
 Foreground objects should be more prominent
than their backgrounds.

Figure - Ground
- In this case, lines are perceived to be content, so the
structure competes with the content.
- The result is distracting.

Figure - Ground
http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-principles-1-figure-ground-relationship.php

Figure - Ground
http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/gestalt-principles-applied-in-design/

Similarity
 “Elements that share similar
characteristics are perceived as more
related than elements that don’t share
those characteristics.”
 Similarity is a powerful mechanism for
communication.
 There are many ways in which objects
can be considered to be similar.
 We will look at different examples

Similarity
Are these item similar?

Similarity
 In designing web pages and applications, its is
important to provide visual clues as to which
interface elements are related to one another.
 So users can quickly perceive organization and
make sense of what the designer has created
so that they know how to use or interact with
it.

Similarity
 As a graphic designer make use of the law
of similarity, you help viewers scan data
quickly and effortlessly. You can
manipulate their eyes and minds, focus
their attention on small things you want
them to consider important. For example, if
it's a web store design, you group items
together or emphasize the style of how they
appear on a page like in the following
examples:

Similarity
 In above examples, color (or more
fundamentally, contrast) has been used to
imply relationships and create structure.

Proximity – Without Hierarchy

Proximity
According to their brand site, their logo was designed to include “25 icons, each of which represents
something important to Unilever”.

Proximity- Hype Type Studio
This is a very simple example which highlights great use
of proximity and white space. Take note how the studio
name (Hype Type Studio) and it’s descriptive text
(Graphic Design + Art Direction) are grouped together.
This makes perfect sense as these three lines all have a
connection to each other — the name of the business
and what the business does.
Now look at the second paragraph — this contains all the
contact information about the business. Again, this is
great use of proximity as this information is all related.

Proximity- Galleri Tema
This is a great example of using the principle of
proximity with both type and graphics. The type
is well organised using relationships such as
the name of the movie (A Clockwork Orange)
and the director (Stanley Kubrick). In addition to
this, take note how most of the graphical
elements are grouped together and positioned
on the same side of the layout.

Continuation
 “Elements arranged on a line or curve are
perceived as more related than elements not on
the line or curve.”
 Once you look or move in a particular
direction, you continue to look or move in that
direction until you see something significant
or you determine there’s nothing significant to
see.

Continuation
In this example the eye is led through the first design element towards the
star that aligns with the curve

Common Fate
 “Elements that move in the same direction are
perceived as more related than elements that
are stationary or that move in different
directions.”

Common Fate
 A tooltip can be a useful interface component
and design mechanism.
 The user thinks, “the information is relevant to
what he/she is pointing at or hovering over”.

Closure
 “When seeing a complex arrangement of
elements, we tend to look for a single,
recognizable pattern.”
 Closure is a common design technique that
uses the human eye's tendency to see closed
shapes. Closure seeks simplicity. This
technique is often associated with Logo
design.

Symmetry & Order
 “People tend to perceive objects as
symmetrical shapes that form around their
center.”
 Symmetry gives us a feeling of solidity and
order, which we tend to seek.
 Since our eyes will quickly find symmetry
and order, these principles can be used to
effectively communicate information
quickly.

Symmetry and Order
In the following poster for the Bike Expo
in New York, the design concept aimed
for a unified circle as the main focal
point. To create the circle, the designer
portrayed one half as a bike wheel and
one half as a manhole cover. While
different in texture and color, the fact
that they resembled a symmetrical figure
unified them in the eyes of this poster’s
audience.

Focal Point
 “Elements with a point of interest, emphasis or
difference will capture and hold the viewer’s
attention.”
 This principle suggests that our attention will
be drawn toward contrast, toward the element
that is unlike the others in some way. In the
image below, your eye should be drawn to the
square. It’s a different shape and colour from
the other elements.

References / Reading list
http://www.andyrutledge.com/gestalt-princip
(Most from this link)

Visual Perception

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