e natural human need for resolution, to fill-in the blanks, to sell all kinds of products. A common approach is to offer a reduced price starter kit for some collectible item like a spoon, dish, or coin that includes the first item of a series and a display case with room for several more products. When customers get the first collectible and place it on the display provided, the empty spaces cry-out to be filled. It's an old marketing gambit, but one that works because human beings are hardwired to fill-in the blanks and complete the display or pattern.

The Gestalt visual designer will use five pattern producing contextual techniques in order to provide the viewer with clu

'Wired' magazine published an intriguing article entitled 'Very Short Stories' where they asked a number of authors to create a story in only six words. At first this seems to be an impossible task, but as you'll see it's an excellent example of how the principles of Gestalt can help marketers develop powerful marketing messages on their websites or in any other marketing venue.

One of the best 'Very Short Stories' was by Canadian novelist, Margaret Atwood, "Corpse parts missing. Doctor buys yacht." This macabre six-word tale tells us a complete story. We need no further details or explanation to understand exactly what has happened. This is an example of what the Gestaltists call 'closure' the ability of the brain to fill in the blanks in order to complete a picture or in this case to tell a story.

Since the early days of the Gestalt movement visual artists have had an affinity for the psychological implications of the theory. We are all familiar with Op Art's visual tricks and with Rorschach images and how we interpret them, but as you can see from Atwood's clever six-word story, this principle also works on a conceptual level.

Although proponents of Gestalt have been mainly concerned with the visual implications of the theory's principles, these same principles can be applied to more sophisticated problem solving issues. The ability to form almost instantaneous conclusions from relatively little information as discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Blink' could easily be attributed to the analytical implications of Gestalt theory.

Delivering a marketing message on a website quickly and in a manner that is easy to understand and remember is the primary problem-solving task confronting the professional website designer concerned with achieving his or her client's marketing objectives.

There are many examples of how this principle of closure works. Someone gives you something to read. The text on the page at first appears to be gibberish as none of the words have any vowels, but despite their absence, you find that you can still read the message and understand what is being said.

These examples illustrate how the human brain puts pieces of information together until it recognizes a pattern that has some meaning. This phenomenon has often been boiled down to the familiar phrase: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When websites disappoint, the cause most likely starts with a failure to recognize that websites are communication vehicles and that communication is as much a psychological design problem as it is an artistic or programming exercise.

The Significance of Pattern Recognition

Direct marketers have successfully used the natural human need for resolution, to fill-in the blanks, to sell all kinds of products. A common approach is to offer a reduced price starter kit for some collectible item like a spoon, dish, or coin that includes the first item of a series and a display case with room for several more products. When customers get the first collectible and place it on the display provided, the empty spaces cry-out to be filled. It's an old marketing gambit, but one that works because human beings are hardwired to fill-in the blanks and complete the display or pattern.

The Gestalt visual designer will use five pattern producing contextual techniques in order to provide the viewer with clu

staltists call 'closure' the ability of the brain to fill in the blanks in order to complete a picture or in this case to tell a story.

Since the early days of the Gestalt movement visual artists have had an affinity for the psychological implications of the theory. We are all familiar with Op Art's visual tricks and with Rorschach images and how we interpret them, but as you can see from Atwood's clever six-word story, this principle also works on a conceptual level.

Although proponents of Gestalt have been mainly concerned with the visual implications of the theory's principles, these same principles can be applied to more sophisticated problem solving issues. The ability to form almost instantaneous conclusions from relatively little information as discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Blink' could easily be attributed to the analytical implications of Gestalt theory.

Delivering a marketing message on a website quickly and in a manner that is easy to understand and remember is the primary problem-solving task confronting the professional website designer concerned with achieving his or her client's marketing objectives.

There are many examples of how this principle of closure works. Someone gives you something to read. The text on the page at first appears to be gibberish as none of the words have any vowels, but despite their absence, you find that you can still read the message and understand what is being said.

These examples illustrate how the human brain puts pieces of information together until it recognizes a pattern that has some meaning. This phenomenon has often been boiled down to the familiar phrase: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When websites disappoint, the cause most likely starts with a failure to recognize that websites are communication vehicles and that communication is as much a psychological design problem as it is an artistic or programming exercise.

The Significance of Pattern Recognition

Direct marketers have successfully used the natural human need for resolution, to fill-in the blanks, to sell all kinds of products. A common approach is to offer a reduced price starter kit for some collectible item like a spoon, dish, or coin that includes the first item of a series and a display case with room for several more products. When customers get the first collectible and place it on the display provided, the empty spaces cry-out to be filled. It's an old marketing gambit, but one that works because human beings are hardwired to fill-in the blanks and complete the display or pattern.

The Gestalt visual designer will use five pattern producing contextual techniques in order to provide the viewer with clu

bility to form almost instantaneous conclusions from relatively little information as discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Blink' could easily be attributed to the analytical implications of Gestalt theory.

Delivering a marketing message on a website quickly and in a manner that is easy to understand and remember is the primary problem-solving task confronting the professional website designer concerned with achieving his or her client's marketing objectives.

There are many examples of how this principle of closure works. Someone gives you something to read. The text on the page at first appears to be gibberish as none of the words have any vowels, but despite their absence, you find that you can still read the message and understand what is being said.

These examples illustrate how the human brain puts pieces of information together until it recognizes a pattern that has some meaning. This phenomenon has often been boiled down to the familiar phrase: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When websites disappoint, the cause most likely starts with a failure to recognize that websites are communication vehicles and that communication is as much a psychological design problem as it is an artistic or programming exercise.

The Significance of Pattern Recognition

Direct marketers have successfully used the natural human need for resolution, to fill-in the blanks, to sell all kinds of products. A common approach is to offer a reduced price starter kit for some collectible item like a spoon, dish, or coin that includes the first item of a series and a display case with room for several more products. When customers get the first collectible and place it on the display provided, the empty spaces cry-out to be filled. It's an old marketing gambit, but one that works because human beings are hardwired to fill-in the blanks and complete the display or pattern.

The Gestalt visual designer will use five pattern producing contextual techniques in order to provide the viewer with clu

absence, you find that you can still read the message and understand what is being said.

These examples illustrate how the human brain puts pieces of information together until it recognizes a pattern that has some meaning. This phenomenon has often been boiled down to the familiar phrase: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

When websites disappoint, the cause most likely starts with a failure to recognize that websites are communication vehicles and that communication is as much a psychological design problem as it is an artistic or programming exercise.

The Significance of Pattern Recognition

Direct marketers have successfully used the natural human need for resolution, to fill-in the blanks, to sell all kinds of products. A common approach is to offer a reduced price starter kit for some collectible item like a spoon, dish, or coin that includes the first item of a series and a display case with room for several more products. When customers get the first collectible and place it on the display provided, the empty spaces cry-out to be filled. It's an old marketing gambit, but one that works because human beings are hardwired to fill-in the blanks and complete the display or pattern.

The Gestalt visual designer will use five pattern producing contextual techniques in order to provide the viewer with clu

e natural human need for resolution, to fill-in the blanks, to sell all kinds of products. A common approach is to offer a reduced price starter kit for some collectible item like a spoon, dish, or coin that includes the first item of a series and a display case with room for several more products. When customers get the first collectible and place it on the display provided, the empty spaces cry-out to be filled. It's an old marketing gambit, but one that works because human beings are hardwired to fill-in the blanks and complete the display or pattern.

The Gestalt visual designer will use five pattern producing contextual techniques in order to provide the viewer with clues for completing the pattern that in-turn communicates the message;
1. Closure: the mind is predisposed to complete a pattern by filling in the blanks from the available information.
2. Continuance: the mind will follow a path seeking a conclusion or resolution from clues that point in particular direction.
3. Similarity: the mind fights abstraction by trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together in some familiar form.
4. Proximity: the mind draws conclusions from the physical relationship of clues that clarify associations that help make the unknown known.
5. Alignment: the mind demands organization and will use association to create meaningful groups of information.

The Significance of Story Telling

Successful marketers don't need to provide every detail of a marketing message in order to deliver a meaningful presentation, in fact too much information can actually get in the way of delivering a sophisticated communication. Like Margaret Atwood's six-word story, meaning can be both concise and precise when the right combination of information is presented.

A story is nothing more than a conceptual pattern with a beginning, middle, and end. When your brain has to do a little work to put the pieces of information together to form a complete comprehensible message, that story becomes more memorable and that is exactly what marketers and advertisers strive to achieve.

If we want to maximize sales we have to look at the big picture. What do we want from our website visitor or prospect beyond a one-shot sale of a product or service? The answer lies in how we learn, how we come to conclusions, and how we develop our personal belief systems. Our belief systems range from our political affiliation to the brand of toothpaste we buy.

Developing A Marketing Belief System

All marketers have learned Al Reis and Jack Trout's axiom that a brand is owning a piece of your audience's mind, the problem has always been how to actually acquire that valuable piece of real estate?

The management of a business is an all consuming process that leaves little time for contemplation of conceptual problem solving, but if we step back for just one moment and think of our customers as human beings, animals with the need to resolve problems and form conclusions based on a unique mental process, then maybe we can present our marketing case with more long term impact.

Everything we believe in is based on a four-part mental process that is best executed by means of a linear narrative - a compelling well-formed story.
1. Retention: the message we deliver must be retained in order for it to have any long-term affect.
2. Comprehension: th