Gestalt Principles

Why do we see animal shapes in the clouds or faces on tree trunks? The answer lies in how our brains make sense of the world—by identifying patterns to help us understand what we see. This process makes it easier to navigate our surroundings. Imagine how confusing life would be if we couldn’t recognize a tree as anything other than a tangle of sticks and leaves!

This is the main idea behind Gestalt psychology, a school of thought that suggests our minds perceive objects as whole elements rather than collections of smaller components.¹ In an effort to simplify what we’re looking at, our brains arrange the individual pieces of an image so we can see the big picture. As a result, we automatically fill in missing information, group similar items together, and focus on elements that stand out.

Several rules of perceptual organization, called Gestalt principles, emerged from this school of thought. Essentially, Gestalt principles are laws of human perception that explain how we simplify complex images by grouping objects and recognizing patterns.

Before we explore each principle in detail, it’s important to acknowledge their application in design. By considering the laws of human perception, designers can manipulate design components—including colors, shapes, sizes, and white space—to convey meaning. The resulting products are often more aesthetic, user-friendly, and functional.

You can see examples of this on nearly every major shopping website. When you land on Amazon’s homepage, for example, you immediately notice the search bar at the top. Bright white against a dark background, it’s impossible to miss! This results from your brain simplifying the complex information on the page and singling out the one element that looks different.