Law of Common Region
Elements tend to be perceived into groups if they are sharing an area with a clearly defined boundary.
Law of Proximity
Objects that are near, or proximate to each other, tend to be grouped together.
Law of Prägnanz
People will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images as the simplest form possible, because it is the interpretation that requires the least cognitive effort of us.
Law of Similarity
The human eye tends to perceive similar elements in a design as a complete picture, shape, or group, even if those elements are separated.
Law of Uniform Connectedness
Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection.
Mental Model
A compressed model based on what we think we know about a system and how it works.
Miller’s Law
The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory.
Occam’s Razor
Among competing hypotheses that predict equally well, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.
Paradox of the Active User
Users never read manuals but start using the software immediately.
Pareto Principle
The Pareto principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.