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Gestalt: common region 0:30
A 30-second explainer of Gestalt: common region, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Gestalt: common region demo
What this video covers
Common region is the grouping effect that occurs when items share a boundary: surround some elements with a line or tinted background, and they’ll be perceived as a group - even if other items are closer or equally nearby. It’s one of the strongest grouping cues, alongside visible connections, and typically overrides proximity and similarity.
The dots never moved, but the moment a box was drawn around a pair, they became a unit - and the neighbour just outside the line, no further away than before, was suddenly an outsider. Enclosure quietly overrules plain distance.
