Visual Design Principles

General Design Principles

• Aesthetic-Usability Effect - Attractive things actually work better.
• Face-ism Ratio - The closer to a face you crop an image, the more you emphasize their personality over their physical appearance.
• Von Restorff Effect (Isolation Effect) - When multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the rest is most likely to be remembered.

Gestalt Principles

• Closure - The mind sees complete figures or forms even if a picture is incomplete or partially hidden
• Connectedness - Elements that are visual connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection.
• Continuation - When two objects intersect, people tend to perceive them as uninterrupted objects that overlap
• Common Fate - When visual elements move in the same direction at the same rate, we assume they have the same stimulus
• Figure & Ground - The medium is the message. A communication technology (the medium or figure) necessarily operates through its context (or ground)
• Form - We tend to group together forms of similar shape, pattern, color, etc.
• Proximity - Objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be grouped together
• Similarity - The human eye tends to perceive similar elements in a design as a complete picture, shape, or group, even if those elements are separated.

Related

These principles are produced by combining the Gestalt Principles

• Law of Common Region - Elements tend to be perceived into groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary