GESTALT THEORY AND INSTRUCTIONAL-DESIGN

Research on the visual presentation of instructions (and other texts) tends to be repetitious, unsystematic, and overly complex. A simpler y et rich approach to analyzing the visual dimension of instructions is Gestalt theory. Gestalt principles of proximity, closure, symmetry, fi gure-ground segregation, good continuation, and similarity provide a p owerful approach to making instructions more inviting and consistent, as well as easier to access, follow, and understand. This article appl ies six Gestalt principles to a badly designed instruction to show wha t improvements result when Gestalt theory is considered in instruction al design.