Psychology of shapes in Design: how different shapes can affect people behavior (2024)

FAQs

Psychology of shapes in Design: how different shapes can affect people behavior? ›

Shapes will influence how viewers perceive and react to them. Making informed decisions about the use of shapes, colour, fonts, and overall composition will lead to a design that resonates with your target audience while inspiring trust and confidence in your projects or brand.

Shapes will influence how viewers perceive and react to them. Making informed decisions about the use of shapes, colour, fonts, and overall composition will lead to a design that resonates with your target audience while inspiring trust and confidence in your projects or brand.

Geometrical shapes show emotion because curving shapes such as circles depict calmness whereas sharp-edged shapes like squares depict agitation. In addition, light-coloured shapes convey happiness whereas dark-coloured shapes convey sorrow.

Behavior is driven by genetic and environmental factors that affect an individual. Behavior is also driven, in part, by thoughts and feelings, which provide insight into individual psyche, revealing such things as attitudes and values.

The science studying the influence of shapes on people is known as the psychology of shapes. The study claims that each shape has its own meaning and influences our minds and reactions differently. There are many psychological tests that are used to define the personality or mental condition via shapes.

The psychology of shapes

Circular shapes: Unity, community, friendship, stability, feminine. Triangular shapes: Masculine, power, law, science. Square shapes: Strength, efficiency, professionalism, practicality. Vertical lines: Aggression, masculinity, strength, progress.

Design clearly shapes how we think and behave, it guides our emotions. People are complex and different and so different types of designs suit people differently but ultimately the correct design could mean stability, success, calm, happiness and the wrong design could result in gloom, discord, anger and frustration.

The Behaviour of Shapes: Shapes can be used to control your feelings in the composition of an artwork: Squares and Rectangles can portray strength and stability. Circles and Ellipses can represent continuous movement.

Did you know that certain shapes make us feel a certain way? Shapes with rounded edges are softer and more approachable, while shapes with sharp lines and edges, depict strength and presence. Are you aware how the meaning of shapes can effect your brand?

What shapes and influences human behaviors? ›

Behaviour is affected by factors relating to the person, including: physical factors - age, health, illness, pain, influence of a substance or medication. personal and emotional factors - personality, beliefs, expectations, emotions, mental health. life experiences - family, culture, friends, life events.

Early in development, children utilize shape similarity to form categories and learn new words. In a phenomenon known as the 'shape bias,' they generalize a novel word to objects that are similar in shape rather than color, size, or texture (Smith, 2000).

The Rorschach can be thought of as a psychometric examination of pareidolia, the active pattern of perceiving objects, shapes, or scenery as meaningful things to the observer's experience, the most common being faces or other pattern of forms that are not present at the time of the observation.

It's based on the notion that we are attracted to certain shapes and forms based on our personalities, attitudes, education and experience. And once you determine which of those personality types you're dealing with, the better equipped you are to communicate effectively.

Squares and rectangles

Rectangles and squares indicate familiarity, comfort, security, and a sense of peace. Even when not in focus, they are used in almost every design as a base or a frame to give it a sense of stability. This is because the angles that form a square or rectangle depict a mathematical order.

A large new study published in Nature Human Behavior, however, provides evidence for the existence of at least four personality types: average, reserved, self-centered and role model.

Psychologists say that our personality is mainly a result of four major determinants, i.e. Physical (Biological/Hereditary), Social (the community you are brought up in and your role in the community), Psychological (your behaviour, emotions and inner thought patterns) and Intellectual (your values and beliefs).

People interpret circumstances differently based on their past experiences and personality traits. Behaviour is largely based on a few predetermined factors: genes, character, upbringing and personality traits.

People associate curved lines with happiness, generosity, and rhythm.

What are the shapes associated with anger? ›

Different states of anger, like fury and annoyance, are represented by red triangles. In contrast, states of fear are purple faceted waves which “feel” very different than sadness' soft, heavy blue bubbles or disgust's green glops.

White represents the positive shape and black the negative shape.

Why design for behaviour? It is almost certain that design affects your brain. For instance, colors evoke different actions in your brain; green encourages people to interact and gives off a 'safe' vibe, and red forces people to halt and think twice about their actions.

Behaviorists believe human beings are shaped entirely by their external environment. If you alter a person's environment, you will alter his or her thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The system is based on rewards and punishments.

Chain of Responsibility Pattern

It is a behavioral design pattern that allows us to pass a request between a chain of objects. Each object in the chain contains its processing logic that performs some action and decides the next object from the chain to delegate the work.

Squares symbolize order, trust, stability, and being grounded. One of the most familiar geometric shapes in design, squares, and rectangles are used to organize and define a design, adding comforting structure along the way.

The hexagon is the strongest shape known. Not many people know this but if you want something to hold a lot of weight pick a hexagon. Hexagonal patterns are prevalent in nature due to their efficiency.

The shape of a structure affects how strong it is. Rectangles, arches, and triangles are the most common shapes used to build big structures. The weight pushes down on the rectangle and causes the top side to bend. The weight presses down on the arch and is spread outward along the curve to the ground below.

Triangles: Power, science, religion, law, masculinity, strength, purpose, energy, precision. (i.e. Chevron, Delta)

Designers use shapes to express different ideas, create the notion of movement, offer texture and depth to an image, suggest a mood or emotion, or emphasize an area of interest.

How do shapes affect your way of thinking and decision making? ›

Two studies confirmed that people who are exposed to sharp versus round shapes perceive others as more aggressive and are more likely to make an aggressive decision in a task requiring effortful thinking.

Influences on Behavior: Personal, Social, and Demographic.

A big idea to remember is that sanctions, mores, folkways, norms, and values influence and guide the way we act as individuals, and as groups, in society. Because of these concepts, we can usually guess or anticipate how people will act or behave in different situations.

Overall, genetics has more influence than parents do on shaping our personality. Molecular genetics is the study of which genes are associated with which personality traits. The largely unknown environmental influences, known as the nonshared environmental effects, have the largest impact on personality.

Skinner's scientific behaviorism follows their lead. Human behavior is shaped by three forces: (1) the individual's personal history of reinforcement, (2) natural selection, and (3) the evolution of cultural practices.

The name itself is an acronym for individual Motivation, Abilities, Role Perception and Situational Factors. These are marked as the four major factors in determining individual behavior and results.

Essentially, psychology helps people in large part because it can explain why people act the way they do. With this kind of professional insight, a psychologist can help people improve their decision making, stress management and behavior based on understanding past behavior to better predict future behavior.

Confirmation bias, sampling bias, and brilliance bias are three examples that can affect our ability to critically engage with information. Jono Hey of Sketchplanations walks us through these cognitive bias examples, to help us better understand how they influence our day-to-day lives.

What are the 5 shapes of personality? ›

The traits that constitute the five-factor model are extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Extraversion, sometimes referred to as surgency, is indicated by assertive, energetic, and gregarious behaviours.

Squares and Rectangles

We always see them easily in our daily life because these shapes are the most common in design layouts. Square shapes are formed by straight lines and right angles that give viewers a sense of reliability and security and these attributes make people feel safe and contained.

Squares and Rectangles

Square shapes are calming and pleasing to look at because they evoke a sense of conformity, honesty, and rationality. You can't imagine a square shape being easily toppled, so images with squares as the dominant shape feel exceptionally reassuring.

Spiral shapes simply use to represent the circle of life and growth. Spirals in graphic design have the most powerful effect as it relates to creativity, calmness, intelligence, and freshness.

The most aesthetically pleasing images are all based on the golden ratio. The golden ratio is, put simply, a rectangle a little more than 1.6 times wide as it is high.

The science studying the influence of shapes on people is known as the psychology of shapes. The study claims that each shape has its own meaning and influences our minds and reactions differently. There are many psychological tests that are used to define the personality or mental condition via shapes.

Introduction. Simple geometric patterns might convey emotional meaning. For example, diagonal and angular configurations tend to be associated with threat, while rounded features and curved lines tend to be linked to pleasantness and happiness.

Geometrical shapes show emotion because curving shapes such as circles depict calmness whereas sharp-edged shapes like squares depict agitation. In addition, light-coloured shapes convey happiness whereas dark-coloured shapes convey sorrow.

A shape is a closed form that consists of straight lines, curved lines or angles. Drawing a shape is the first step to creating an object; by adding shading, color, background and other shapes, an artist transforms a simple outline into a more complex design.

How are shapes used as a powerful element in design? ›

Shape is an important element in digital design because it is used to create icons and buttons. Icons are small, simple images that represent an action or function. For example, the icons on your phone represent different functions like calls, messages, and photos.

A shape effect is a geometric distortion or modification of the shapes in a group of objects. Shape effects are used to create various visual adjustments or effects of object shapes, or to create shape variations by distorting shapes.

A shape is a two- or three-dimensional object that stands out from the space next to it because of a defined or implied boundary. A shape can live in different areas in space, and have other elements like line, color, texture, or movement. Like forms, shapes come in two different types: geometric and organic.

Principles of design include emphasis, alignment and balance, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space.

All shapes can be described as either positive or negative: Positive shapes are the shapes of actual objects. Negative shapes are the areas between these objects.

Color. Color is one of the most obvious elements of design, for both the user and the designer. It can stand alone, as a background, or be applied to other elements, like lines, shapes, textures or typography. Color creates a mood within the piece and tells a story about the brand.

The hexagon is the strongest shape known. Not many people know this but if you want something to hold a lot of weight pick a hexagon. Hexagonal patterns are prevalent in nature due to their efficiency.

Lines are the most seamless and most powerful elements of design. They have a vast spectrum of functions and purposes. We use them to separate and organize space, outline and contour objects, emphasize certain elements, draw attention, and so forth.

But shapes are more than just practical, constructive tools: their meanings are what allow designers to communicate visually. This is sometimes called shape language or shape psychology. Along with the other elements of design, shapes allow designers to convey characteristics and emotions in a nonverbal way.

Curved shapes offer rhythm and movement, happiness, pleasure, and generosity. They are seen as softer than sharper shapes, which offer energy, violence, and anger.

Is shape a principle or element of design? ›

But the principle carries over into design. Shape is also a major part of any design, both in terms of specific shapes used as elements within the design, and the overall shape of the design itself.

Spirals often co-relate with the circle of life and depict a journey or growth. In some cultures, spirals represent knowledge or information. In today's world, spirals depict creativity and a fresh mind. Common meanings: growth creativity calmness intelligence.

Shape An element of art that is two-dimensional, flat, or limited to height and width. volume; includes height, width AND depth (as in a cube, a sphere, a pyramid, or a cylinder).