{"id":234,"date":"2025-09-26T22:52:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T22:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/?p=234"},"modified":"2025-09-26T22:52:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T22:52:19","slug":"making-software-easier-with-gestalt-and-fittss-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/2025\/09\/26\/making-software-easier-with-gestalt-and-fittss-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Software Easier with Gestalt and Fitts\u2019s Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I design interactive software, I think about Gestalt principles because they help users understand the screen faster. For example, the law of proximity tells us that when buttons are close together, people see them as related. The law of similarity shows that if colors or shapes look the same, users think the functions are similar. This makes the layout cleaner and easier to use. The law of past experience also reminds me to keep common patterns, like putting menus where people expect them, so they don\u2019t have to learn everything again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, Fitts\u2019s Law makes me think about efficiency. The bigger and closer a target is, the faster and easier it is to click. That\u2019s why I would make important buttons like \u201cSubmit\u201d or \u201cSave\u201d larger and place them near where the user\u2019s focus is. Putting items on the edges of the screen also helps, since the mouse stops at the edge and is easier to control. On the other hand, very small or crowded buttons can cause mistakes. By using both Gestalt and Fitts\u2019s Law, the design can look clear and also feel easy to use, giving people a smoother experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I design interactive software, I think about Gestalt principles because they help users understand the screen faster. For example, the law of proximity tells us that when buttons are close together, people see them as related. The law of similarity shows that if colors or shapes look the same, users think the functions are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fitts-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.interactiondesignhistory.com\/Fall2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}