ARTICLE SUMERY: Gestalt principles have been part of the study of User Interface since the first half of the 20th century.
PROXIMITY PRINCIPLE IN VISUAL DESIGN by Aurora Harley takes a look at the principle of proximity and how it affects our design and how to use it to your advantage. She helps us to understand how to
- Place Related Elements for Maximum effect
- Use White Space
- Create meaningful Groups
It takes about 50 milliseconds to form a first impression on a website, the average time spent on a website is 45 seconds. Where designers place design elements can mean the difference between a cohesive and easy to follow website or a confusing website that will not hold the attention of the visitor resulting in an even quicker departure.
Aurora Harley concludes with “Placing related elements in close proximity and using whitespace to create meaningful groups is a foundational principle in visual design. Users are task-focused and may scan pages quite quickly, so making these groupings visually obvious increases usability by helping users quickly find and focus only on those UI elements that are most related to their current task.”
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