WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.980 Gestalt principles are principles of human  perception that describe how we group similar   00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:11.459 elements, recognize patterns and simplify  complex images when we perceive objects.   00:00:11.580 --> 00:00:16.920 - So, Gestalt principles — sometimes called  Gestalt laws — are simply a way of thinking through   00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:22.153 Gestalt psychology — 'Gestalt' just meaning 'form', is how we're making sense of a visual field. 00:00:22.153 --> 00:00:26.795 These are ways of parsing out what things mean within a visual space. 00:00:26.795 --> 00:00:32.107 Gestalt relies first and foremost on the understanding of a visual field and the ability to create 00:00:32.107 --> 00:00:36.945 what are called *figure/ground relationships. So, figure/ground relationships are sometimes 00:00:36.945 --> 00:00:42.240 called 'positive space' and 'negative space'. So, I'm going to talk about them as figure/ground, 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:46.693 because when we look at something like this visual field of rectangles, 00:00:46.693 --> 00:00:50.100 it all looks the same — that is right now our ground. 00:00:50.100 --> 00:00:55.091 But the first rule of figure/ground relationships is that discontinuity creates figure. 00:00:55.091 --> 00:01:00.034 So, by changing one thing here, by creating that discontinuity, that draws our attention, 00:01:00.034 --> 00:01:05.038 that becomes the thing in which we are focusing on, and that is really essential, 00:01:05.038 --> 00:01:08.797 because this can manifest through the Law of Similarity, 00:01:08.797 --> 00:01:12.325 by which visual similarities are read as being more related. 00:01:12.325 --> 00:01:17.623 And we can do this through color; we can do this through shape; we can do this through size. 00:01:17.623 --> 00:01:21.223 So, we read these things as being more of a group. 00:01:21.223 --> 00:01:26.399 Proximity works in a similar way wherein the actual visual or physical proximity of things 00:01:26.399 --> 00:01:30.709 relative to each other tells us that these are also read as a group. 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:36.132 There's the Law of Continuation, by which our eye wants to follow a particular line. 00:01:36.132 --> 00:01:41.816 And so, when we read this visual, we don't read it as two lines which have met in the middle 00:01:41.816 --> 00:01:45.956 and made a hard turn. We read this as two lines flowing over each other, 00:01:45.956 --> 00:01:48.526 and that's because of continuation. 00:01:48.526 --> 00:01:53.797 And all of these things — Gestalt principles —  influence hierarchy, 00:01:53.797 --> 00:01:58.306 informational grouping and readability, and they become essential for 00:01:58.306 --> 00:02:02.480 understanding both concept and content.