2022 Introduction to Statistics in Research Mitchell 2nd ed

I N T R O T O R E S E A R C H : D A T A V I S U A L I Z A T I O N & C O M M O N S T A T T E S T S

Gestalt Principle of Symmetry:

In this case, the object appears symmetrical and forms around the center. You have seen examples of symmetry everywhere. It’s in the golden arches of McDonald’s logo. Interestingly, we associate symmetric objects with stability, consistency, and harmony while asymmetric objects are associate with negative feelings or impressions (Christopher, 2012).

Table 160: Gestalt Principle of Symmetry

Gestalt Principle of Figure Ground (and others principles):

This illustration uses similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, and figure/ground (The orange figure represents the figure/ground because our eye differentiates this object from the surrounding area. The mind must decide which elements to focus on. As you can see, the use of color in the design below was used well.

Table 161: Example of several principles especially figure/ground

Now let’s look at two designs to see how well you can identify elements that have the right visual signals (the information we want to communicate) and which are noise (clutter) as well as which items violate Gestalt principles. The survey data is fictional.

Table 162: Why is this a poor design?

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