The spatial arrangement of text, that is, the use of blank space, the arrangement of rows and columns, and the juxtaposition of words and graphics can influence the way readers see the text.

The document designer needs to create these spatial arrangements in order to lead the readers to see the text in specific ways. Leading readers and helping them to follow the order and importance of information efficiently and effectively is, in essence, the overall goal of the document designer. This is indeed a difficult and sometimes daunting task, and it helps to have as many tools as possible at your disposal.

An essential tool in the document designer’s arsenal is an understanding of Gestalt psychology. This is not an optional tool. Having even a basic knowledge of the principles of Gestalt psychology is as important as knowing the principles of typography.

Naturally, the document designer wants to create spatial arrangements that lead readers to see the text in particular ways. Doing this is not at all easy. However, some useful guidance has been provided by psychologists working in the Gestalt tradition who studied how people group and organize what they see.

Gestalt Psychology developed in Germany at about the same time as Behaviorism developed in the United Statesthe second decade of the twentieth century. In contrast to the Behaviorists, who were interested primarily in learning, the Gestalt psychologists were concerned with the study of perception, particularly visual perception. A major objective of the Gestalt psychologists was to explain why the world looks the way it does to ordinary people in natural settings. Led by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka, the Gestalt psychologists systematically studied how the properties of the visual world shape our perceptions. One of the earliest discoveries of Gestalt psychology was that the way things look depends not just on the properties of their elementary parts, but also, and, more important, on their organization.

The Gestalt psychologists sought to understand the relationships among the parts of organized wholes and, in general, among elements in the visual field by asking how these relationships shape the way things look. Their extensive research program yielded a number of principles that can be very useful for document designers.

The following information on seven of the Gestalt principles for describing how people interpret the visual field of a document has been condensed from the book Dynamics in Document Design by Karen A. Schriver (pages 303 to 326), and it would be beneficial for the serious document designer to read the complete text, as well as some of the more extensive research that has been done on this subject.

It shows how the relationships among elements in a document can be used to structure the visual field and influence readers’ interpretation of what they see.