Gestalt laws describe how humans can draw conclusions about visual objects before taking them in in their entirety. For example we can deduce that an object is a circle even if part of it is missing.
They allow a designer to see how the user will preceive visual information.
- Proximity: Items appear as groups when close together
- Similarity: Items appear as groups when similar
- Closure: Missing parts of images can be filled in subconsciously by humans
- Continuity: Items appear as continuous stream of items when lined up
- Symmetry: Items inside symmetricaly flipped objects appear as related objects
- Short term memory acts as a "scratch pad" for temporary recall of memory.
- These memory buffers are constantly being overwritten, we can store these memories temporarily by using ateention.
- Limited space so interfaces have to be to the point, clear and clean.
- If one task is interrupted by another then the memory of the first task is affected.
Sensory memory acts as a buffer for stimuli that's received through any of the senses. There are three main types of sensory memory:
- Iconic memory - Visual memory (images, setting, environment)
- Echoic memory - Aural (music, speach)
- Haptic memory - Touch (feeling)
These memory buffers are constantly being overwritten, we can store these memories temporarily by using ateention. Limited space so interfaces have to be to the point, clear and clean.