As designers, Gestalt principles are taught to us early on. While Gestalt principles seem to be mostly intuitive and subconsciously implemented, how often do we really sit down and open Figma with a list of Gestalt principles in front of us to refresh our memory and focus our designs on following them? The same can be said for Fitt’s law, we know it, but we typically apply it subconsciously. As I refreshed myself on both Gestalt principles and Fitt’s law last week, I sat with some of my recent design work and really looked at it through the lens of these principles and it helped me see things more clearly and make revisions accordingly.
The next time I sit down to design something new, I think it’s worth holding off on the excitement of wireframing and prototyping to incorporate more mindfulness of these principles in the process. Things like target size and distance, proximity, and continuation come easier after a while, though I think making the conscious effort to really think about them more often yields better design in the end.