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

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.

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.

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.

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.