week4-Gestalt Principles and HCI Design

How do these HCI design principles relate to Gestalt Theory?

I think both of these two theories help designers construct the way people look at everyday things around us. I guess many people have experiences to travel abroad. Sometimes it’s hard to describe or recognize a place you want to go or a simple need you have, like restroom, just like sometimes your own language database couldn’t work for you. But you still can “feel” the exact direction according to icons, signs people’s motions. There is something worldwide. You just know that the tobacco pipe stands for men, and high-heel stands for ladies; or blue for men and pink for women. The environment we grew up taught us lots of things to deal with the world, that’s the conventions, that’s the process of socialization.

Computer network is also a huge society with lots communities. Designers have to try their best to make great communication with their users. Gestalt Theory does great help when we talk about the basic principles of design. I think the principle of Figure & Ground is cool. In this case, the common saying that “To see is to believe” might be not that true. There are some interesting pictures.

Others principles like Similarity, Proximity & Continuity or Closure, Area & Symmetry help people classify what they saw. Also help people organize things efficiently. It’s a dialog between designer and user. People learn how to use from daily design; then designers learn how to design from the usage people might expect. They are both educating each side.

The greatest step of MS Office System is to introduce the concepts of HCI, which makes people easy to understand, and make computer an electronic appliance rather than a professional apparatus.

Further more, in the world of design, the author mentioned about the affordance. It’s an efficient way to communicate with the environment. When you see a button, you know you have to press; when you meet a handle, you will turn it to the opposite size. Especially when you are designing a website, the characteristic of WWW is it displays to worldwide, thus you have to care about the way and thinking process of all mankind.

HCI is a great medium between machines and human, like the old totem of royal families, you could recognize the symbol immediately and find the feedback directly. That’s the shortcut to master the rapid-changing machines we have to face everyday.