Gestaltism / Gestalt Theory

Recently gestalt theory (also gestaltism) has gained immense popularity, especially for designers. In fact it seems to be in trend. However, gestalt principles are also very helpful and designers should know about them.

Most authors discuss gestalt principles in an abstract form. Others focus on print design. There are few articles about gestaltism in digital products. While different at first, digital and print products adhere to the same layout rules. The details might be different from print publications, but the ideas remain relevant.

In this article series I want to highlight the impact of gestaltism on digital design. Furthermore, I want to explain how and why gestaltism works. This article focuses on gestalt psychology. Later articles will discuss individual principles in detail and illustrate their application to digital design.

Why should you read this article

You can use gestalt principles without knowing about the gestalt psychology background. If this is all you want, you can skip to the next part in this series.

You probably use some of the principles in your designs already. However, using gestalt principles to explain your work is much more interesting. Clients and coworkers will understand your reasoning and why your solution works. For this it is important…