On the other hand, we could use the principle of proximity to increase tolerance by ensuring that a diverse group of people of different backgrounds, genders, races and classes is represented in schools, offices and other places where people are close to each other. One of the original principles of Gestalt is the principle (or law) of proximity, which states that things that are closer to each other seem more connected than things that are more distant. Proximity has a remarkable impact on our visual perception, to the point that it can even outweigh other factors such as similarity in color or shape. This article is a continuation of the first article on the principles of gestalt, in which we introduced and discussed the law of similarity. There will be a third article dealing with the laws of figure/soil, precedence, closure and common destiny. For now, let`s stay nearby, which (literally!) Proximity in space, time or relationship means. The organization of sentences according to proximity prevails over any instinct to organize sentences according to similar colors. Just as positive interactions with people in physical proximity can lead to positive interpersonal connections, unwanted actions of surrounding people can lead to negative interpersonal connections. In written material, the law of proximity allows us to understand the text as a whole. This also applies to paragraph spacing and more disparate text elements on a web page. The distance between the blocks of text tells us how likely they are related to each other. Take any book near you and flip through it.
If it`s not a phone book, you`ll notice how the author (hopefully!) Used paragraphs sensibly to hold the text together via similar ideas, points, or lines of argumentation. The rule is: if you change the topic, you need to start a new paragraph. The law of proximity is very useful for allowing people to group ideas, concepts, etc. It is ideal for us to be able to recognize different groups of objects at a glance. However, as designers, we have to be careful when it comes to applying the law in our designs. What for? If you group too many elements too tightly, you`ll get a noisy and cluttered layout. The proximity of each element becomes so indistinct that your design loses importance. You can organize related content for clarity using proximity and continuation laws. You can also use the uniform law of connectivity to indicate a stronger correlation between actions and content. With this in mind, ask yourself what elements of your design you want to group together for the user.
Gestalt psychology was founded in the early 20th century by a group of German psychologists who wanted to explain how the human mind perceives visual information. This group found that people automatically impose structure on what they see to ensure that we understand our worlds in terms of whole objects rather than disjointed parts and pieces. While the principle of proximity, as described in both social psychology and Gestalt psychology, can help us more easily understand how objects and even people form relationships, it is also important to note that it can lead to pitfalls. A groundbreaking first study of the proximity of Festinger, Schacter and Back found that a relatively homogeneous group of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were more likely to befriend other students living in the same dormitory. In addition, students were more likely to form close friendships with people who lived next door than with those who lived two doors away. In Gestalt psychology, the principle of proximity is one of the many principles of the Gestalt of perceptual organization and states that people treat objects close to each other as a group. In social psychology, the principle of closeness suggests that people who are closer to each other in a physical environment are more likely to enter into a relationship than those who are more distant. Do you see that even if the four groups are sorted or grouped together, the design as a whole is a very busy matter? We can see that viewing is actually something like work! Getting our users up and running is not what we want. The law of proximity describes how the human eye perceives the connections between visual elements. Elements that are close to each other are perceived as related to elements that are separated from each other.
Remember that the human eye is used to marking and following paths. Fortunately, there are traffic laws that keep us on the road, but our eyes and brains tend to follow lines and routes. This frees people from going with the flow and gives designers the freedom to use this nature. It`s also good for keeping our users on track, as we don`t want them to deviate from what they`re supposed to see in our designs. The law of proximity allows us to use white space, for example, to build perceived relationships between different elements. With your designs, you want to offer both the most aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly interactive product. The laws of proximity, unified connectivity and continuation are tools to improve usability and interaction from the user`s point of view. While it`s not necessarily magical, keep in mind that optical illusions take advantage of certain guaranteed human visual properties, which is also the beauty of understanding gestalt principles. Some research shows that while people are more likely to relate to those who are physically closer to them, these relationships are not always positive.
For example, one study found that people are more likely to dislike those who live near them. Although friendship has also been shown to depend on physical closeness, friendships require frequent personal contact to thrive. In contrast, aversion flourished, even though those who lived nearby rarely saw themselves in person. Interestingly, people who are in physical proximity tend to establish relationships with each other, just as our visual perception tends to perceive nearby objects as related. This is a much-studied phenomenon in social psychology. Although proximity exerts an unconscious influence, research has shown that it has a strong influence on the people they interact with and with whom they make the most connections. The principle of approximation in psychology describes how relationships are formed between people or things close to each other. Remember, however, that the principle of proximity and the other Gestalt laws of perceptual organization are not infallible truths, but heuristics or mental shortcuts that we use to understand what we see quickly.
This is useful from a cognitive point of view, as it prevents us from being overloaded by the wealth of visual information we absorb on a daily basis. However, it can also lead to errors in judgment. Part of this phenomenon can be explained by the simple exposure effect, which suggests that repeated exposure to a stimulus, including another person, can lead to an implicit preference for it. Aside from the interference of other variables, people who see each other regularly due to proximity may begin to favor each other over people who are further apart due to their frequent exposure to each other. .