Law of Uniform Connectedness

Law of Uniform Connectedness Presented by Kristen Sadlocha

Gestalt Laws of Grouping

Gestalt psychologists came up with the principles of grouping to demonstrate how humans tend to look at objects in a particularly organized way. They said that our brains tend to automatically pick up on patterns when looking at multiple objects by using these 5 principles: Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, Closure, and Connectedness.

The Law of Uniform Connectedness

Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection.

Main Ideas

Group functions that are similar so they are visually connected via colors, lines, frames, or other shapes.
You can use a tangible connecting reference (line, arrow, etc) from one element to the next to also create a visual connection.
Use uniform connectedness to show context or to emphasize the relationship between similar items.

All the squares look the same, therefore we think they are all connected.

Now the squares within the borders appear more related than the squares outside of the borders. The borders create a distinct separation between all of the squares.

The same principle applies when you have more than one shape as well.

The shapes with a line through them appear more connected to each other than the other shapes.

Your brain might group the shapes by circles and squares, or by the two shapes on the left and two shapes on the right.

The square–circle pairs appear to be more strongly related because they are visually connected unlike the previous diagram.

The borders around certain flight instruments help indicate their relatedness to make it easier for the pilot to process what information he is receiving.

Even though the sticky notes are all different colors they are more related to each other when they are placed in their designated columns.

Wireframes are another example of quickly grouping similar information with the use of borders and arrows.

Mind Maps connect related information with simple lines.