UI Design Strategy: The Gestalt Principle

Here are some principles for "doing it right the first time": in user interface design. Doing it right the first time can be 10 to 100 times more productive than inspecting and fixing errors. --David

clipped from www.usernomics.com Patterns in UI design ... "Measuring usability, identifying usage problems, making improvements. All very interesting, but it's a 'correctional' activity at best. The true improvements in usability are made in the design phase. But how do you design a usable interface? The central notion behind Gestalt theory is the idea (or assumption, as some would have it) that we tend to order our experience in a manner that is regular, orderly, symmetric, and simple. Simply put: we are looking for patterns. This is reflected in a number of laws that should help in assuring a UI layout in which controls or function that 'belong together'