To construct an interdisciplinary relational model, we must first consolidate the underlying theoretical foundations of each field. Aesthetics, visual psychology, visual design, and IT engineering planning each have unique developmental histories and core conceptual systems.
2.1 Aesthetics: From Sensible Experience to the Elevation of Life Realm
Aesthetics, as a branch of philosophy exploring sensible cognition and aesthetic spirit, is by no means merely about superficial “decoration” of objects, but touches upon the core issues of human existential experience.
2.1.1 The Sensible Manifestation of the Idea: Hegel’s Rational Framework of Art Philosophy
In Western classical aesthetics, the German philosopher Hegel, standing on classical idealism and dialectics, aimed to “understand art from a scientific perspective” in his landmark work Lectures on Aesthetics. Hegel proposed the core thesis of aesthetics—“beauty is the sensible manifestation of the idea.”
- Carrying the Absolute “Idea”: Hegel believed that the essence of art is never the simple decoration of subjective feelings, but the self-manifestation of the infinite, absolute rational idea in concrete, material, and sensible forms.
- Logical Evolution of History and Spirit: Hegel systematically examined artistic forms such as architecture, sculpture, painting, music, drama, and poetry. Based on the degree of integration between the idea and the sensible form, he divided the historical development of art into three types: symbolic art, classical art, and romantic art. This classification not only clarifies the internal structure of the artistic ideal, but also provides a spiritual sublimation channel for humans to transition from sensibility to rationality, standing between religion and philosophy.
2.1.2 Imagery and Experience: Sublimation of Life under the Chinese Cultural Context
Professor Ye Lang of Peking University, inheriting the traditions of aesthetic masters such as Cai Yuanpei, Zhu Guangqian, and Zong Baihua, constructed a theoretical system of aesthetic principles centered on “imagery (Xiang)” and “experience (Ti-yan)”.
- Gestalt of Imagery: Chinese traditional aesthetics holds that beauty does not lie in isolated physical entities, but in “imagery” generated instantaneously through the fusion of subject and object. The soul of traditional Chinese art lies in constructing an “artistic realm (Yijing)” through unique techniques of combining reality and virtuality (void and solid).
- Elevation of Life Realm: Ye Lang’s Principles of Aesthetics ultimately defines the goal of aesthetics as “elevating the realm of human life.” The value of aesthetic research is not to teach rigid dogmas, but to awaken individual aesthetic experiences, merging the essence of Chinese and Western aesthetics to help modern people find the spiritual home in a chaotic material world, thereby elevating the quality of life.
2.1.3 Aesthetic Relations and Life Practice: Construction of Zhu Liyuan’s Aesthetic System
Professor Zhu Liyuan of Fudan University, in the textbook Aesthetics edited by him, committed to building the aesthetic edifice on the theory of aesthetic relations, which is based on practice theory and centered on creation theory.
- Beauty as a Fundamental Life Practice: Zhu Liyuan advocates that aesthetic activity is not a fantasy detached from social life, but an indispensable life practice that runs through the entire process of human transformation of the world and self-confirmation.
- Aesthetic Education and Personality Shaping: This aesthetic framework emphasizes that beauty in a broad sense is a special realm of life, which must internalize aesthetic forms, experiences, and artistic aesthetics through aesthetic education (Meiyu), thereby shaping a well-rounded, healthy psychological personality and national spirit.
2.2 Visual Psychology: Gestalt School’s Perceptual Dynamic System
As an important cornerstone of modern cognitive psychology, Gestalt psychology (also known as psychology of form), which originated in Germany, provides the core key to decoding the human perceptual world.
2.2.1 Holistic Cognitive Principles: The Gestalt Tendency of the Eye-Brain System
The core proposition of Gestalt psychology is: “Experience and behavior are holistic; the whole is not equal to, and is greater than, the sum of its parts.”
- Perceptual Dynamic Reorganization: When observing objects, the human eye and brain never mechanically identify isolated pixels, lines, or color blocks. Instead, they spontaneously and instantaneously combine local information to make it a unified, easy-to-understand whole (Gestalt).
- Transcending Physical Stimuli: This perceptual tendency is an innate neurological inertia acquired by humans during evolution. It not only explains various “optical illusions” and “apparent motion phenomena” that we take for granted, but also elevates psychological research to the rational height of the experiential structure of the universe.
2.2.2 The Seven Core Organization Laws of Gestalt Visual Perception
The tendency of the human brain to automatically group elements, infer contours, and filter chaotic information is summarized into the seven core principles of Gestalt:
- Proximity: The brain automatically perceives visual elements close to each other in space or time as part of the same related group. Adjusting spacing (such as line height or group margins) helps achieve natural classification of information and creates a clear visual hierarchy.
- Similarity: The human visual system automatically groups elements with highly similar shapes, colors, sizes, or textures into a single category. Using the same color or shape implies specific functional associations, such as the visual consistency of buttons at the same level in a navigation bar.
- Continuity: When scanning a screen, the eye’s visual flow tends to follow a smooth, continuous path rather than breaking or turning sharply. Effective alignment in design reduces eye fatigue by keeping the visual flow continuous.
- Closure: Even if a physical shape has gaps or open boundaries, the brain automatically fills in the blanks based on visual inertia, perceiving it as a closed, complete shape.
- Symmetry & Simplicity: When observing things, our first impression tends toward simple and symmetric shapes, which effectively reduces cognitive reading load.
- Figure-Ground: When small shapes overlap larger shapes, our vision tends to perceive the small shape as the “figure” and the large color block as the “ground,” reflecting the symbiotic relationship between shapes.
- Common Fate: Objects moving together are perceived as belonging to the same group or being related to one another. An example is the motion effect where application icons shake simultaneously when preparing to delete apps on an iPhone.
2.3 Visual Design: Quantitative Training and Formal Rules of Design Foundations
In the field of visual communication and plastic arts, “design foundations” is the common origin of all design disciplines, including planar composition, color composition, and three-dimensional composition.
2.3.1 Core Training Domains of the Three Major Foundations
- Planar Composition: Explores how to organize basic elements into a visually beautiful order on a two-dimensional space through rational grid and skeletal control. It includes the exploration of nine major composition methods, such as repetition, similarity, gradation, radiation, anomaly, contrast, density, space, and texture.
- Color Composition: Based on basic color principles, it studies color contrast, color harmony, and color mixing rules, and further explores the application of “visual psychology of color” in emotional communication and information setting.
- Three-dimensional Composition: Transcending two dimensions, it deeply studies the rules of material materials (such as blocks, sheets, and wires) and space creation, exploring the physical sense of gravity of modeling elements and three-dimensional aesthetic rules.
2.3.2 Syntactic Core of Planar Composition: Points, Lines, Planes, and Grid/Skeletons
- Point: The most basic composition unit in vision. It not only guides position on the screen, but also generates strong visual tension and gravity through clustering and density changes.
- Line: The trajectory of a moving point. It emphasizes the “stylistic feeling of lines”—the tranquility of horizontal lines, the sublime loftiness of vertical lines, the dynamic imbalance of diagonal lines, and the elegant flow of curved lines are formal carriers of emotional appeal.
- Plane: The trajectory of a moving line or the closure of lines. It controls the distribution of color blocks, shape boundaries, and the contrast of virtual and real space on the screen.
- Grid/Skeleton in Grid: The controlling frame of planar composition. It constrains the coordinates, angles, and scaling of all basic elements, allowing the design to maintain its underlying order amidst complexity.
2.4 IT Engineering Planning: Software Development Life Cycle and Computational Thinking
Shifting our gaze back to rational computer science. In IT planning and the construction of large and medium-sized software systems, the underlying theories similarly emphasize strict phase control and abstract encapsulation.
2.4.1 Symbolization and Automation Evolution of Computational Thinking
- Symbolization and Automation: The starting point of computational thinking is to reconstruct complex real-world business scenarios into “symbolized, calculated, and automated” models, converting the complex meanings of the physical world into machine instructions and data structures of Von Neumann computers.
- Five Pillars of Program Thought: Namely, “combination, abstraction, repetition, construction, and recursion.” Software engineers combine and construct basic code in logic, hide underlying details that do not need attention through abstraction, and pipeline complex operations through repetition and recursion.
- Hierarchical Architecture Construction: In physical system construction, IT planning follows step-by-step encapsulation from “algorithms, programs” to “functions, objects, components, and services.”
2.4.2 Rigorous Engineering Planning of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
- Problem Investigation, Definition, and Feasibility Analysis: The first step of IT engineering planning is to define “what problem to solve.” Through researching the business background, system flowcharts are drawn, and detailed cost/benefit analyses are performed.
- Requirements Analysis: Utilizing use case diagrams and data flow diagrams (DFD), it precisely defines the logical boundaries of the system, answering the macro question of “what the system must do.”
- System Design (System Design & Detailed Design):
- Structured Design Method: Centered on “module independence” (emphasizing high cohesion and low coupling), it plans highly cohesive software structure charts.
- Object-Oriented Design Method (OOD): Establishes class diagrams and state diagrams to plan object behaviors, responsibilities, and communication logic.
- Engineering Management and Process Control: Throughout the life cycle, by formulating development plans, implementing process models (such as agile or waterfall), performing standardized testing (white-box, black-box, object-oriented testing), debugging, and project version maintenance, it ensures that the IT system does not collapse or lose control during rapid evolution.