5. People Imagine Objects Tilted And At A Slight Angle Above

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Cups of Coffee Drawn by People Around the World

Stephen Palmer (1981) had a simple mission. Travel the world getting people to draw what their minds remembered, and identified, as a cup of coffee. This is what he returned with. While a couple of the cups are drawn more straight on, all of them demonstrated a perspective from slightly above.

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Actual Top Down View of a Coffee Cup

Even though this is actually what a coffee cup looks like from a top down view, this is not how we remember or identify it.

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Canonical Perspective

The perspective our brains most easily remember and identify objects with. It shows the object with a view from slightly above and can be offset to either the right or left.

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Things to Remember

If an object is shown from the canonical perspective, people are able to recognize it faster and remember it better.

If you are making a web or software application, use icons that have been drawn with the canonical perspective.