The following is a proposed home page for a Web site about pets.

Question

a. Which of the link names are most closely related? Organize them into two groups according to the meaning of the link names and list the groups. Explain your rationale for the groups.

b. What ways do you know to organize information visually? List all five of them. For each one, decide if it would be useful to when reorganizing the link names on the Web site. Explain your answers.

c. Make a photocopy of the home page, cut it apart using scissors and make a new version of the page where the related links appear to be part of a group.

Answer 1

For part A, there are two groups of links – one that includes the merchandise from the site and the other having to do with how to use the site. So the groupings should be

Group 1: merchandise Group 2: using the web site doggie treats sign up! videos for your pooch sign in accessories for your dog view shopping cart dog toys

For part B, they should list all five Gestalt organizing principles and analyze each one for usefulness for this application, perhaps along the lines of:

Closure Continuity creates shapes from incomplete geometric figures; here we’re not working with geometry; we’re working with text. Not useful.

Symmetry The text’s shape cannot be changed to be symmetric; so symmetry does not help us here.

Similarity It is possible to use similarity in organizing text, because one can make text bigger or smaller (similarity of size), regular or bold (similarity of shade). However, there are some better candidates for this application.

Proximity Proximity is useful in this case because we can locate related items close together.

Continuity It is also possible to use continuity, but it’s better for showin