Abstract
When designing multi-sensory displays it is necessary to
consider human perceptual capabilities and understand
how people find patterns and how they organise individual
elements into structures and groups.
Gestalt theory, originally described in 1910, attempts to
explain the way people perceive and recognise patterns.
The early studies of Gestalt principles of grouping were
predominantly concerned with visual perception, although
more recently they have been investigated for auditory
perception. This paper focuses on how individuals use the
sense of touch (haptics) to group display elements using
the Gestalt principles of similarity and proximity. A direct
comparison is made with the visual grouping of elements
using the same two principles of similarity and proximity.
The hypothesis of the experiment described in this paper is
that people will use touch to group display elements in the
same way they group elements visually. Overall we found
that a significant number of subjects used texture or colour
to group the elements when there was an equal spacing
between the elements. This supports our hypothesis that
the principle of similarity is equally applicable for both
visual (colour) and haptic (texture) grouping. Similarly,
when subjects perceived an unequal spacing between the
elements they used spatial position to determine groupings.
These results support our hypothesis that the principle of
proximity is also applicable for both visual and haptic
grouping.
consider human perceptual capabilities and understand
how people find patterns and how they organise individual
elements into structures and groups.
Gestalt theory, originally described in 1910, attempts to
explain the way people perceive and recognise patterns.
The early studies of Gestalt principles of grouping were
predominantly concerned with visual perception, although
more recently they have been investigated for auditory
perception. This paper focuses on how individuals use the
sense of touch (haptics) to group display elements using
the Gestalt principles of similarity and proximity. A direct
comparison is made with the visual grouping of elements
using the same two principles of similarity and proximity.
The hypothesis of the experiment described in this paper is
that people will use touch to group display elements in the
same way they group elements visually. Overall we found
that a significant number of subjects used texture or colour
to group the elements when there was an equal spacing
between the elements. This supports our hypothesis that
the principle of similarity is equally applicable for both
visual (colour) and haptic (texture) grouping. Similarly,
when subjects perceived an unequal spacing between the
elements they used spatial position to determine groupings.
These results support our hypothesis that the principle of
proximity is also applicable for both visual and haptic
grouping.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Conferences In Research And Practice in Information Technology |
| Editors | W Piekarski, B Plimmer |
| Place of Publication | Belford Park, SA Australia |
| Publisher | Flinders Press |
| Pages | 79-86 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781920682465 |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
| Event | Eighth Australasian User Interface Conference (AUIC2007) - Ballarat, Australia Duration: 30 Jan 2007 → 2 Feb 2007 |
Conference
| Conference | Eighth Australasian User Interface Conference (AUIC2007) |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Australia |
| City | Ballarat |
| Period | 30/01/07 → 2/02/07 |