09 · Seeing
Law of Common Fate
Things that move together, or change together, look like one group.
Evidence: Holds upWhat we do with it
- 01
Animate related items together, and unrelated items apart.
- 02
When one action changes several things, change them at the same moment so people see the link.
- 03
Stray motion creates false groups. Keep decorative animation away from content that isn't related.
Examples
Getting it wrong, getting it right.
Don't
A dashboard where every card animates in on its own timer, so unrelated numbers seem linked.
Do
Only the cards that share a filter update, and they update together.
The evidence
What the research says.
Well established in the lab, and one of the strongest grouping cues there is. In William Uttal and colleagues' 2000 experiments, people picked out four dots moving together from a field of dots moving at random, and did best when the four moved on parallel paths.
Sources
- Wertheimer, M. (1923). Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt II. Psychologische Forschung, 4.
- Uttal, W. R., Spillmann, L., Stürzel, F., & Sekuler, A. B. (2000). Motion and shape in common fate. Vision Research, 40(3).
- Wagemans, J., Elder, J. H., Kubovy, M., Palmer, S. E., Peterson, M. A., Singh, M., & von der Heydt, R. (2012). A century of Gestalt psychology in visual perception: I. Perceptual grouping and figure-ground organization. Psychological Bulletin, 138(6).
Last reviewed November 7, 2026. How we keep this current