Proximity design principle

The proximity principle is a part of the Gestalt theory — a school of psychology based on the idea that the human mind perceives individual elements as a whole and always tries to make order out of chaos.^[1]

The proximity principle refers to the closeness between elements. The general idea of this principle is that the human brain perceives items that sit close to each other as related and similar. Thus, designers should place related items closer to each other. Unrelated items, on the other hand, should be visually separated.

Proximity brings organization to designs and helps indicate relationships between content groups. The principle supports balance and visual hierarchy and is closely related to repetition.