Law of Good Continuation
The design aesthetic phenomenon where figures with edges that are smooth are more likely seen as continuous than edges that have abrupt or sharp angles.
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Origin
Max Wertheimer, founder of Gestalt psychology, enumerated the grouping laws — including good continuation — in his landmark 1923 paper Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt published in Psychologische Forschung. Wertheimer had founded the field in 1912 with his paper on apparent motion, conducted at the Frankfurt Psychological Institute with Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka. The grouping laws became foundational to perceptual psychology, graphic design, and human-computer interaction.
Updated February 22, 2026